Eighteen
by LoveIsAlwaysLouder
Summary: "So if you wanna piss off your parents date me to scare them show them you're all grown up." Inspired by Anarbors song 18. Upset with her parents recent actions, Caroline Forbes is ready to ditch her good girl reputation, and troublemaker Klaus Mikaelson is more then willing to help
1. Rebel

Story inspired by the Anarbor song : 18

 _So if you wanna piss off your parents date me to scare them show them you're all grown long hair and tattoos are what attract you baby then you're in luck,_

 _and I know it's just a phase you're not in love with me you wanna piss off your parents, baby, piss off your parents, that's alright with me_

Chapter 1: Rebel Child

Caroline shook out her hair as she looked at herself in the mirror. Her blonde locks fell in waves around her face and stopped just before her shoulders. Before a few weeks ago her hair had been much longer, to just past her rib cage. In a fit of frustration she had chopped off several inches herself in the middle of the night. Her mother had gone ballistic the next morning when she saw her daughter's hair, shoving forty dollars into Caroline's hand and demanding she went down to the hairdresser to get her hair evened out. In her new fashion Caroline had pocketed the money, and chopped off more of the hair herself, using the bathroom mirror as a guide.

To any outsider, it would appear that Caroline Forbes had lost her mind in the summer before her senior year of high school. The once rule abiding, clean cut, miss mystic falls, was morphing into a moody, unpredictable teenager. The first fews weeks of summer had passed like any other. She'd worked part time as a lifeguard at the community pool, attended several miss mystic required events, and kept up with housework as her mother worked her long hours, and her father was off on one of his many business trips. The following school year would have been just like any other as well.. If she hadn't found out. She'd have started senior year with all her friends. Excitedly taken up her role as cheer team captain, coordinated with all the new Miss Mystic falls contestants, applying to the appropriate colleges and answering every request her parents asked of her with " okay daddy" or "of course mom." But now she knew the truth about her parents, and all of that was out the window. She'd kept her pool job, but blown off all of her Miss Mystic duties, started talking back to her parents, and sneaking out of her room in the middle of the night. Just to see if she'd get caught.

She appraised her appearance in the mirror, unaccustomed to her new appearance. Yes her hair was shorter, and her skin was darker from the tan she had gotten from long hours working at the lifeguard chair, but that wasn't the only difference. The nose piercing she'd so desperately wanted in the 8th grade until her mother had refused. That happened. She'd grown her nails out and painted them a bright colour, the way her father found to obnoxious. The sun dresses and cardigans she'd have usually turned to on the first day of school had been pushed to the back her closet.

Caroline smoothed her hands over the frayed ends of her denim shorts and tugged self consciously on the grey slightly cropped tank top she wore. It wasn't a scandalous outfit by any means, but she knew that her father's conservative tastes would never approve. On that thought Caroline let out a snort of laughter to herself, knowing now that her father wasn't so left winged in every aspect of his life. She grabbed her book bag from her desk chair as she exited her room, and walked confidently towards the kitchen. Her father bill was sitting at the kitchen island, flipping through a few work documents between glances at his computer. She knew her mother was already at work and wouldn't be home until close to dinner. Caroline walked over to the fridge and pulled it open, scanning the contents and not acknowledging her father's presence.

"Morning Carebear" Bill greeted, not looking away from his work. Caroline didn't respond, pulling a bottle of juice out of scanning the label. Not hearing his daughter responds, Bill glanced up and felt his face flush in anger as he noticed his daughter apparel. Bill swallowed the gulp of coffee he had taken and nearly spat on the floor, and tried to keep his voice calm as he spoke to his daughter.

" Are you wearing that to school?" Although her father's voice was calm, Caroline could hear the strain in his words and how hard he was trying not to shout. Caroline smiled to herself as she pulled the juice from the fridge and closed the door, not responding to her father's question. She walked away from where her father was sitting and towards the front door.

" Caroline?" her father called after her as she kept walking. Her hand was on the front door, twisting the knob as her father's voice grew less calm and more hostile. By the time Caroline had opened the front door and made it to the front steps, her father was in the midst of a full blown freak out. The sound of his shouting was muffled as she shut the front door and made her way down the short walk to where her friends, Katherine and Elena Gilbert were idling in a crossover SUV. Her father was hot on her tail, pulling open the front door and shouting after her as she continued towards the car, pulling her over sized sunglasses down over her eyes, and pulling open the back door to the car open, and climbing in.

" Um i think he wants to talk to you" Elena said nervously watching as Caroline's father stood on the front porch of the home, his face red from shouting.

" Just drive." Caroline asked, leaning back in her seat and taking a long drink of the juice in her hand.

….

By the time they arrived at school Caroline's phone had exploded with several texts, 5 missed calls, and 3 voice mails from her father. Caroline shoved the phone into her shorts pocket, knowing that by the time her father made it into the office at 9 am she wouldn't have to worry about hearing from him for another several hours.

Caroline was leaning against a bank of lockers, as Elena and Bonnie both collected their things for class. Katherine had long since sauntered away, in pursuit of bothering Mason lockwood.

" I can't believe you quit the team" Elena exclaimed for what seemed like the millionth time that day. Caroline had dropped that bomb on her friend only a few weeks prior and Elena still wasn't over it. Partially due to the fact that Elena found out when Caroline didn't show up for the bus for cheer camp.

" You do remember that you were the one to convince me to join the teen in the 9th grade right? That was you, telling me about how fun and fulfilling it would be, and now you're quitting. In our final year on the team. I mean you're supposed to be captain for christ sakes!" Caroline rolled her eyes and hugged her books to her chest. Bonnie nodded along with her friends words before adding in her own two cents.

"And now you've left Elena and I to battle it out for captain, even though in reality neither of us are good enough dancers actually come up with half decent routines. So you've basically sunk the whole team" Bonnie joked, looking over at her friend and grinning. Caroline fought the urge to roll her eyes again.

"Rebekah's a good dancer. She'll help you." Caroline said referring to one of the junior dancers on the team.

Her friends continued to babble on, but Caroline had all but stopped listening. Her thoughts were drifting away from the present situation and towards the uncertainty of her life. Sometimes she thought she was being dramatic, but as her mind floated towards all the lies her parents had been feeding her, she knew her actions were justified. She was done being the perfect daughter. The perfect student. The good girl. She'd joined the cheer team because her parents had encouraged it. She'd run for Miss Mystic because her Grandmother and all her aunts had reigned during high school. She ran committees, and volunteered at events, all at her parents suggestions. But she was done with that. She was ready to do whatever she wanted to do. All Caroline had to do was figure out what that was.

She was snapped out of her haze, and Elena leaned in closer to her and spoke.

" I see Mikaelson hasn't lost his flame for you." Elena quip, nodding her head towards the end of the hallway.

Caroline turned her head to look down the hallway, and sure enough, Klaus Mikaelson was heading in their direction. He'd seemingly had a crush on her since his family had moved to Mystic Falls in the 10th grade. He'd watch her as she walked by in the hallways, and flirt in his sarcastic and cunning ways if they were in the same class. The few times she'd gone to his house to pick up his sister Rebekah for a cheer practice or for a ride to a competition he had always been the one to answer the door, that is until he moved into his own place before the end of last year.

Caroline had never returned any of his advances, mostly because up until that summer she had been dating Tyler Lockwood, but also because he was exactly the kind of boy her parent would warn her to stay away from. Klaus would be more of what her parents would classify as a "bad boy". He didn't live with his parents, he never attended town events, and he didn't seem to care much about school. Caroline wasn't even sure if he really liked her, or if he just got a kick out of messing with her head and all those around her. Either way, Caroline had always felt flattered but slightly uncomfortable with the attention.

But today as Klaus walked by her Caroline met his gaze and allowed their eyes to lock as he walked past her. His mouth spread into a lopsided closed mouth grin as her eyes stayed on his until it became necessary for him to turn his head to continue walking. Caroline looked down at her feet, after he had past and smiled at her shoes. She suddenly felt very aware that it didn't matter what she did anymore. She had no one she wanted to please or impress. She could stare in the hallway at anyone she wanted.

…..

The rest of the day passed without much incident. Although almost every member of the cheer team approached her to inquire if the rumours that she was leaving the team were true. Caroline did a lot of smiling and nodding, and pretending to be sympathetic to the girls sadness to her departure. Before this day caroline hadn't realised just how little she cared about cheer until she had to listen to everyone complaints. Any love she had had for the sport had clearly melted away long ago.

She'd had to sit through a near 20 minute lecture from football couch tanner, about letting down the team and abandoning her responsibilities. The near whole time he was talking at her she was busy picking at her nails under her desk.

…

" So practice will probably run long today." Elena stated, as she, Bonnie, Caroline and Katherine walked towards the girls locker room in the gym.

"Seeing as we have to figure out a new captain, and routine and" Caroline once again stopped listening and began to think about how exactly she'd be getting home. She didn't want to wait around the school for a few hours for her friends to be done cheer practice. She could walk home but it was almost 10 miles. There was always the bus?

Caroline shook her head to clear her thoughts. She bid goodbye to her friends and pushed open the nearby gym doors to the outside. She stepped out into the student parking lot and began to weave her ways through the cars towards the city bus stop on the other end of the lot. She arrived at the bus shelter and began to dig through her book bag for coins while examining the bus schedule tacked up there.

There was a roar of an engine from somewhere near the back of the lot and as Caroline turned around she way a sleek black motorcycle came speeding through the student lot. The bike came to a stop a few feet infront of her, the stretch of grass that separated the student lot and the bus shelter from each other between them. The bikes moter cut and went quiet, as the rider rested his feet on the ground and removed his helmet.

" Need a ride?" Klaus Mikaelson asked, watching Caroline with a smirk on his face, his voice cool and confident.

Well this was a total cliche. The bad boy with the motorcycle asking her if she wanted a ride home. This was straight out of the pages of a bad teen romance novel, but in that moment she didn't care.

If her parents saw her on a motorcycle they'd likely have a heart attack, and with any luck, they'd be home when she pulled up.


	2. Reputations

Eighteen Chapter 2

Klaus handed her the helmet he had just removed from his own head.

" i've only got the one." He stated as Caroline climbed over the back of the bike, secured the helmet on her head and with only slight hesitation wrapped her arms around his torso. Klaus revved the engine and sped through the student lot, weaving through and past the other cars attempting to make their way off of school property and towards the main road. Caroline let out a small gasp when they made a sharp turn out of the lot and picked up speed. The cold wind stung her exposed skin as they drove down the highway towards downtown and the neighbourhood where the forbes home was located. They came to a stop at a red light and the wind died down enough to allow for Caroline to hear.

" Do you need to go straight home?" Klaus asked, turning his head slightly so she could better hear him. Caroline shook her head, and then realizing that he couldn't hear her, she said

"No."

"Well that's good." Klaus stated, turning his head to face the road again.

"Seeing as i don't actually know where you live." He said jokingly as the light turned green and they sped forward again.

…

" Ice cream?" Caroline asked, as Klaus handed her a vanilla cone from the stand in the Mystic Falls community park.

"And what's wrong with ice cream?" He asked, watching her with an amused expression, and she twisted her cone in her hands, looking for the perfect place to take her first bite.

"It just doesn't quite fit your reputation" Caroline stated, wiping up the melted ice cream that was dripping down her cone, and licking the remanence off her finger.

"My reputation?" Klaus asked, a slight laugh in his voice as he looked at her incredulously. Caroline rolled her eyes slightly and smiled.

" Yes. Your, too cool for school, don't care, motorcycle riding image doesn't conjure up thoughts of ice cream in the park on a sunny afternoon." Klaus laughed and narrowed his eyes at her.

"Well your reputation doesn't exactly fit being here with me right now. Cheer captain skipping first practice? I thought miss mystic falls would be far more dependable than that" Klaus shot back, taking a bite into his cone with a crunch. Caroline rolled her eyes and leaned back against the bench.

" Miss mystic falls is dependable, but i'm not miss mystic falls anymore, and for that matter i'm not actually on the team either. You could say my reputation is crumbling down around me. Being here with you is basically just the last nail in the coffin of my social demise." Caroline joked smiling while she ate her ice cream.

" So you've abandoned all your posts." Klaus stated, watching as Caroline shook her head.

"Why's that?" Caroline twisted to face him, resting her arm on the top of the park bench and propping her face in her hand

" You know i hate football. Hate it. But for the past three years i've spent the entire first half of the school year freezing my ass off on a football field, jumping around in some skimpy outfit screaming ' ra ra go team' when in reality i could not have cared less about the score. Well i guess that's a lie. When i was dating Tyler i used to hope that they'd win, because if they lost, which they did most of the time they are not a very good team, he would mope around and whine about until the next game when they would inevitably lose and cycle would start all over again"

Klaus grinned as he watched Caroline vent her frustration, trying to mask his amusement by covering his mouth with his hand.

" and Miss Mystic well.. That was just a lot of smiling and pretending to care. There are only so many historical festivals, parades, or galas a person can go to before they start to want to pull out their own eyelashes. Plus it's not like they raise money for anything important. There are only so many times that you can beautify a town square before it just gets wasteful. Or you know how they're always raising money to restore town bridges? Every single bridge in this county is structurally sound, but they've all been re painted at least three times within the past four year. Each time in a different colour. Only difference".

Klaus took the last bite of his cone as he watched her and then pressed on.

" So if you've felt this way the whole time, why is it just now that you've dropped it all?"

Caroline let out a deep sigh as she polished off the last of her ice cream. She suddenly struck her as odd that she was sitting here on a park bench with Klaus Mikaelson , to whom she had barely spoken before sharing all her true thoughts about her prior activities. All day she had been feeding the cheer team members, many of whom were her long time friends, lines about how she had quit the team to focus on school work, or that her knee injury from the previous year was preventing her from participating.

" Because up until a month ago i was still walking around this town living my life and dedicating my every breath to living up to their every wish and expectation of me that my parents set out, and after everything that they" Caroline stopped herself from finishing her sentence, and let out a huff before continuing.

" I'm done. I just don't want to do that anymore." Caroline said looking over to met Klaus's gaze. Caroline cracked a smile turned her head forward and then looked up to the sky and let out a single laugh.

" I'm sorry i didn't mean to dump all my issues on you." Caroline apologized leaning back against the bench once again.

" I did ask." Klaus joked, amused. Caroline sighed slightly exasperated at her own antics, and then coming to her sense she asked,

" What time is it?" She reached over and picking up Klaus's wrist that bore a watch. She outstretched his arm so she could see the time and then sighed once again.

" We should go. I turned my phone off but i'm sure my father's been calling every other minute wondering where I am." Caroline dropped his wrist and gave his knee a light slap as she stood up.

….

Caroline's eyes strung slightly from the wind as the bike zipped down the quiet residential streets of Mystic falls. She closed her eyes and subconsciously tightened her grip around Klaus's torse. How odd this day had turned out to be. When she'd got up that morning she could have never imagined riding around town on the back of a half strangers motorcycle. If she had known she definitely wouldn't have worn that particular pair of shorts. When she had first climbed on the back of the bike she had horrible flashes of them whipping out and the skin on her legs being torn apart by the asphalt. However the more they drove the more Caroline grew comfortable. Klaus was so confident in control of the machine that all of her fears about crashing melted away.

As they turned down Caroline's street she was suddenly very conscious of just how loud the bike was. She could picture her father looking up from his place at the kitchen table, scrunching his face up at the obnoxious sound, his nostrils flaring in frustration. If her mother was home the sound of the motor could bring about memories of crashes on the freeway and new reports about irresponsible drivers.

The bike slowed as they drove down the street towards her house.

" It's that one up there." Caroline whispered into Klaus's ear pointing towards a craftsman style rancher half way down the street. They came to a stop in front of Caroline's home, and sure enough her father Bill was exiting the house and walking onto the porch to inspect the source of the noise.

Caroline swung her leg off the bike and pulled the helmet off her head and shook out her hair. She glanced over the shoulder and saw the fury building in her father's expression. She smirked slightly to herself as she twisted back around to face Klaus, an idea forming in her mind.

Before she could talk herself out of it, Caroline leaned forward, wrapping her hand around the back of klaus's neck and pulled him towards her. Klaus met her lips with surprise but no hesitation, balancing the bike with one hand and wrapping the other arm around her waist. After a few moments Caroline broke the kiss, a slightly mischievous smile on her face. She took a step back and handed him back his helmet.

"Thanks for the ride." She said, still smirking before turning on her heel and heading up towards the house.

Caroline passed her father on the porch as he stood in disbelief at what he had just seen.

" Hi daddy." she said smugly as she moved past him into the house.

Klaus pulled the helmet onto his head and adjusted the strap to fit. As he drove away a grin crept onto his face. This had the potential to be the beginning of something. Maybe he was just being used, he wasn't quite sure, but it wouldn't stay that way for long.


	3. Rally

Eighteen Chapter 3: Rally

Caroline sat in her bedroom with music blaring from her laptop on her dresser loud enough that she knew her parents could hear it in the living room.

Her father hadn't spoken to her since she had arrived home and headed back to her room. The second her mother Liz arrived home however, she and Bill had had a heated discussion about their daughter's actions in the living room. Through her music Caroline had heard the phrases

" unacceptable" , "what's gotten into her" and " who's this boy" along with a few other choice words. She knew what would come next. It would be exactly like after each time this summer when she'd taken the car without asking, stayed out past curfew, or like after she'd gotten her nose pierced. Her parents would call her out for dinner. They'd all sit down to eat as if nothing had happened. No one would speak at first. No one would even look at each other, and then the ice would break. Her father would make a comment. Her mother would break out her concerned parent act, and Caroline's sarcastic tone would bleed through her words. Before anyone could blink an eye they would all be wrapped up in a screaming match, everyone hot in the face and frustrated. While her parents felt angry and desperation, all the arguments did was feed the fire in Caroline's stomach. Her parents had been playing happy family for too many years. If they weren't going to tell her the truth the least she could do was cause a little trouble.

Eventually Caroline would stand up from the table, shove back her chair and storm out of the room. Sometimes she would take the car keys and drive around town, but most of the time she would just storm down the street and head off for a walk. She often stopped by her elderly neighbour, house and take her dog, fluffy , with her . She'd make a few laps of the neighbourhood staying out long enough to know that her parents would have their hissy fit out of their system. Sometimes she would walk up to the front door and still here her parents shouting and arguing about what to do about her. In those cases Caroline would walk around to the side of the house, shove open her bedroom window and hoisted herself into her room.

That night her mother had gone on about how unsafe motorcycles were and how she thought she'd raised her daughter to know better then to get on the back of such a dangerous machine. Bill raged about her driving around with a boy that they didn't know and how he never thought he'd have a daughter who would ran around town throwing herself at riff raff. Caroline had expected this. Her parents had barely approved of her dating Tyler. Who came from a good family, and those father was the god damn mayor. It took months for her parents to be more than cordial. Her father would have stressed out about his daughter so much as speaking to a guy like Klaus. But seeing his daughter climb off the back of a motorcycle and swap spit with the guy right in front of him. That had sent Bill up the wall.

When Caroline made it back from her walk that night she didn't even bother to check the door to see if her parents were still in the living area and upset, but rather went straight to her bedroom window and shimmied her way inside. She stripped out of shorts and tank top and pulled on an oversized t shirt to sleep in. She flicked off her light and climbed into her bed. She lay awake for several hours staring at her ceiling. She wasn't upset about fighting with her parents. She was the one who initiated that, she brought that all on herself. Caroline was still lingering all on the reasons she chose to stir up all this trouble. Only a few months ago Caroline had trusted her parents more than anyone in the world, but now she felt as if she didn't know them at all.

Caroline knew her mother was working the night shift the next few days so she didn't bother coming out of the room at all in the mornings. As soon as Elena or Katherine texted her that they were outside, Caroline would slide open her bedroom window and run around the side of the house to meet her friends. These days she used her window as a means of exit more than her front door.

Katherine and Elena often exchanged looks when they saw their friend crawling out her bedroom window rather than using a door, but they knew better then to ask. Bonnie, Kat, and Elena all knew that something was up with their friend. She had been acting very un Caroline like lately, from quitting the team to changing her look, and they'd all noticed. Caroline shuttered to think of what they would say if they'd seen her little performance with Klaus outside her house.

Over the next few days of school Caroline had seen Klaus around a few times, mostly while she was leaning against her locker waiting for her friends. He would walk by her and smirk or raise his eyebrow, while Caroline may scrunch her nose or roll her eyes in return. After school on tuesday and thursday she'd gotten a ride home from the Gilberts as usual. During Wednesdays after school cheer practice, Elena and Bonnie had dragged Caroline along demanding that she watch what they had cooked up for a new routine. She sat on the bleachers in the gym and tried to look engaged as she watched her friends and ex teammates perform. Once they were done dancing and Caroline had praised their moves and stroked their egos, the girls continued with their practice as usual, and Caroline waited for them to be done so she could get a ride home. God she couldn't wait until her car was out of the shop. She was sitting in the bleachers looking bored, when Klaus entered the gym and made his way around the outline towards the doors that lead out to the student lot. He caught her gaze and smirked at her as he walked by on the opposite side of the room. Caroline made the shape of a gun with her hand and mimed pulling the trigger against her temple. Klaus let out a snort of laughter that caused all the girls practicing on the floor to whip around and stare at him. Caroline covered her hand with her mouth to hide her own laughter and smile from the group.

…..

That friday, the first of the school year, was the pep rally bonfire. If Caroline had still been team captain she would have been busy flitting around making sure everything was perfectly organized and ready for the big night. She watched as Bonnie and Elena rushed around making sure each cheerleader knew what player they were assigned to, and setting up supplies to decorate the players lockers. Although Caroline didn't miss the cheerleader busy work, she did miss having a project. Caroline wasn't one for idle hands, and since quitting miss mystic and cheer, she had reorganized her closet several times, alphabetized her music collection and rearranged her book shelfs more times than she could count. She thought maybe she'd join some other clubs once the school year got into full swing. She needed something to fill the gaps on her college applications that quitting cheer had left, but she'd figure that out later. Caroline hadn't really planned on going to the rally, but Elena was hearing none of it. She'd threatened to sit in Caroline's driveway all night leaning on the horn until she came out if she'd had to. Caroline had pouted and rolled her eye's through the whole conversation but she'd eventually agreed to attend.

Caroline ate dinner with her parents in almost silence before the rally. They sat around the table poking at their chicken and rice, as Liz and Bill tried to force conversation with their only daughter. Caroline hadn't done anything in particular to upset her parents that day, so what was there to talk about.

"Are you going to the rally tonight hunny?" Liz asked trying to keep her voice light and cheerful.

Caroline nodded, scraping the rice together onto her fork

" Even though you're not a cheerleader anymore?" Bill clarified, looking at his daughter pointedly.

Caroline rolled her eyes,

" You know strangely enough they let all students attend." Just then her phone bleeped with a text from Elena, informing her that she was outside. Caroline rose from the table, dumped her dishes in the kitchen sink and headed for the door.

Caroline ran down the steps and across the walk to slide into her friend's car. Elena was at the wheel, Katherine in the front seat, and Bonnie in the back. Caroline buckled her seat belt as the car shot down the street. Sitting in the car Caroline felt extremely out of place. All her friends were dressed in their cheer uniforms, their pom poms in a pile on the floor on the backseat.

" You have to promise me you won't spend all night sulking Care." Elena quipped from the front seat, glancing over her shoulder at her friend.

" I'm not going to sulk." Caroline defended, un crossing her arms to prove her point.

"And you're coming to Tyler's after party." Kat stated, twisting around fully in her seat to meet Caroline's eyes with a mischievous smile. Caroline's shoulders slumped as she looked at Kat with disbelief.

" I did not agree to that." Care stated, folding her arms across her chest again.

" Come on Care! You guys broke up like four months ago! You didn't come to any of his parties in the summer. You've got to break the ice somehow." Bonnie reasoned.

Caroline rolled her eyes. She didn't want to admit that her friends had somewhat of a point. She didn't want to be Tyler's enemy. Was she pissed about what he'd done? Yes. But she was ready to be over it. She was friends with all her other ex's. Okay so she had only one other ex, and she and Matt had only dated briefly in the 10th grade, but still. She didn't need to be Tyler's friend, but she didn't need to avoid him like the plague. Caroline sighed.

" Fine i'll go. But if it get weird i'm gone." Her friends cheer, and Caroline rolled her eye's again. Did they really have to start all the hooting and hollering now when it was all they'd be doing for the next few hours?

…

Within the hour the majority of the school was crowded around a large bonfire and small stage where coach tanner was standing at a microphone, announcing players on the team as the cheer team danced around the shook their pom poms. As they disperse from around the stage Caroline moved towards the fire, crossing her arms and soaking up the heat from the flame. She was slightly jostled as people crowded around, shouting and enjoying the festivities. She was chewing on the inside of her cheek trying not to look completely miserable.

As she looked across the crowded she was surprised to see Klaus, how never attended school or community sanctioned social events, standing across the fire from her. He caught her eye, and gave her a knowing look, before mouthing the words

" ra ra" at her. Caroline rolled her eyes and smirked at him before sarcastically mouthing back

" go team." and half heartedly raising her arm to fist pump the air.


	4. Rational

Eighteen Chapter 4: Rational

Caroline was squished in the back of the gilberts SUV along with several members of the cheer team on the way to Tyler's party. The bonfire had started to die down around nine as people seeped into the parking lot and piled into cars headed towards the Lockwood estate on the other side of town.

By the time Caroline and her friends pulled up, the house was already alive with life. There were people on the lawn and crowded onto the porch. The music was so loud that anyone could hear it the second they turned onto the Lockwoods long driveway. Katherine, frustrated with the crowded driveway and minimal parking, made a sharp turn of the wheel and drove up onto the lawn. The girls poured out onto the lawn and made their way through the people and towards the house. Bonnie hooked her arm through Carolines and pulled her towards the house's entrance.

" Come on. It's not going to be that bad. If you really try you might even have some fun." Bonnie joked, as she lead her friend up the front steps. The house was packed almost wall to wall with people, all speaking loudly over the music and clutching cups of foamy beers from one of the kegs in the kitchen. Almost the whole senior class was in attendance along with most of the juniors and sophomores, and a select few freshmen. Despite the fact that both of Tyler's parents were prim and proper upstanding members of the community, they always turned a blind eye to their sons many outlandish parties and behaviors.

Within minutes Caroline's friends and ex teammates had all melted away into the crowed in the search of drinks or their boyfriends, leaving her alone. At this point Caroline felt there was only one appropriate thing to do. Get outrageously drunk.

Now Caroline had been to plenty of parties before, but she was never one to get crazy. She had gone to her first real party in the 10th grade. Matt and Vicki Donovan's mother had been off on one of her benders and her children had taken that opportunity to invite over half the class and get drunk on the liqour their mother had hidden under her bathroom sink. Katherine, Elena, and Caroline had all allowed themselves to get out of hand and ended up sleeping on the Donovans bathroom floor. When she had been reigning Miss Mystic she hadn't drunk at all, as she had a certain image she needed to maintain as part of title. But now? Well now she was standing alone at a party at her ex boyfriend's house, and she sure as hell deserved a drink.

Caroline pushed her way through the people and towards the kitchen. Two football players were manning the kegs, charging people a few dollars per cup. Fate was on Caroline's side that day however, as Matt was one of the players distributing the beer. He poured a cup and reached through the crowed to hand the drink to Caroline. She shouted a thank you to him, and moved out of the kitchen. She took a sip of the beer and her expression soured. The beer was cheap and foamy, but she downed it none the less. However, Caroline wasn't prepared to drink that swill all night. She moved through the house, scanning the rooms until she found who she was looking for. She grabbed Katherine by the arm and drug her down the hallway and towards the back of the house where the party had yet to spread. Caroline pushed open the door to Mr. Lockwood's office, where she knew there was a locked cabinet full of liquor. Caroline pulled a bobby pin out of Kats hair and pressed it into her friend's hand and directed her towards the booze lockup. One of the qualities in herself that Katherine was most proud of was her ability to pick a lock.

In a matter of minutes Katherine had broken the lock and the two were digging through the bottles. Katherine unscrewed the top of a tequila bottle and took a long swig. Caroline swipped a mickey of vodka, and pulled her friend with her out of the room.

…..

Not to long later Caroline had a strong buzz going, and was hoping to start to enjoy herself any minute now. She'd hung out with Matt in the kitchen for a while while she dug through the cabinets looking for something to chase her vodka with and been forced into dancing with a very intoxicated Katherine to an old Britney Spears song. She was nearly two hours into the party and she had yet to see Tyler. She wasn't complaining. It would be easier if she got through his party without encountering him, especially since she was holding his father's stolen vodka in her hand.

There were several people smoking close to open windows, but the smoke still filled the room and stung Caroline's eyes. She felt around in her bag for her eye drops and found nothing. She hoped there might be a spare set in one of the bathrooms. Caroline made her way through the party and towards the bathroom by the kitchen. When she arrived she was disappointed to see the long line that had formed for it. She circled around to the other side of the house and was frustrated to find an equally as long line heading up the other bathroom. Caroline didn't have the patience to stand in line and wait and wondered if anyone would notice if she snuck upstairs and used one of the bathrooms in the bedrooms.

The one rule of house parties at the Lockwoods was that no one was allowed on the upper floors. It was the only part of the house that was fully carpeted and if anyone spilled a drink on the cream coloured fabric, Carol Lockwood would set the town ablaze. When she and Tyler were dating she used to sneak upstair during parties to stash her stuff in his room, or skip the bathroom line. No one would know if she did that now.

Caroline made her way casually to the front room and slipped up the staircase, hoping that no one would take notice of her. Tylers room was the first at the top of the landing, and after a moment's hesitation she twisted the handle and entered the room. She crossed the room and ducked into the bathroom. She looked in the bathroom cabinet and was disappointed to see nothing but toothpaste and some bandaids. A thought came to her, and unsure, Caroline crouched down and pulled open the cabinet under the sink. To her surprise her small pink makeup bag still sat there behind a bottle of bleach. She'd stashed that there months ago, for occasions such as this. The small bag contained such items as makeup remover wipes, q-tips, concealer and most importantly, the eye drops she needed.

Once she was finished with the drops she motioned to return the bag under the sink and then thought better of it. She should just take it with her. She didn't plan on making visiting tylers room a regular thing. She didn't need to keep her safety net there anymore.

Caroline turned out the light in the bathroom and headed towards the door back towards the party, not noticing the other person in the room.

" I've been meaning to give that back to you." Tyler stated, referring to the makeup bag in his ex girlfriend's hands.

Caroline jumped, startled to find Tyler sitting on his bed, as if he had been waiting for her. Her hand flew to her chest, and she let out a huff of breath.

"Jesus. You scared me." She let out another breath and then continued to speak.

"I'm sorry i'm up here, there was just a line for the bathrooms and-" Tyler cut her off with a laugh in his voice

"It's alright. I know you're not one to wait." He joked. Caroline, slightly uncomfortable, pushed her hair behind her ears and looked down at her shoes. Tyler filled the silence.

" i saw you coming up the stairs, and i followed you up here because i was hoping we could talk.. About like us." He said unsurely, a crooked uneasy smile on her face. Caroline narrowed her eyes at him and shifted slightly in the direction of the door. She let out an awkward laugh, hoping to relieve some of the tension.

"I don't really have anything to say about that." Caroline said, pushing up the sleeve of her sweater to keep her hands busy. Tyler stood up from his bed and started to walk towards her.

" Care. It's been months. I've been giving you space or whatever, but i think that if we talk about it that we could-" this time it was Caroline who cut Tyler off.

" We could what? Get back together? Because i'll tell you right now that that's not going to happen. I'm not going to pretend to understand why you did what you did. I mean yes, Haley was very pretty, and she was here for a semester so you thought i'd never find out. Look i don't get it, but i'm over it. We don't need to talk. We don't need to get together and discuss our feelings. I didn't come here to get back together, I came here to hang out with my friends, you know wherever they are, and make lasting senior memories or whatever bullshit Elena said." Caroline could tell that Tyler was winding up to say something else, so she turned on her heel and headed for the door.

As she hurried down the staircase she could hear Tyler behind her, and as she reached the main floor she felt his hand clasp hard around her wrist as Tyler spun her around to face him. She tried to yank her arm away but his grip was tight around her wrist. His face was filled with frustration but his eyes showed his anger.

" let go." Caroline hissed at him, not wanting to speak any louder and cause a scene. Tyler was about to open his mouth to speak when a figure appeared over Caroline's shoulder.

"Everything all right?" Klaus asked, his voice cool but menacing. Caroline have a final tug on her arm and her wrist fell free from Tyler's loosened grasp. Tyler looked Klaus up and down and seemingly decided against starting a conflict began to back away.

" It's fine" Tyler spat as he melted back into the party.

Caroline shook out her now sore wrist and turned to face Klaus, trying to act composed.

"Two social events in as many hours, not bad for a social pariah." Caroline joked, as she opened her bag and reached inside.

" Yes, well i've watched you reinvent your life. It's been inspirational." He joked, as he watched Caroline pull out the mickey bottle and down what was left of it straight. Klaus's eye's widened in slight disbelief, his expression becoming slightly incredulous. Caroline placed the empty bottle on a nearby table and shook out her hair still feeling slightly flustered.

Caroline leaned against the banister of the stairs her head spinning slightly as she spoke to Klaus.

" How long have you been here?" She asked him, watching as he placed his empty plastic glass beside her empty bottle.

" I arrived about three beers ago." Caroline smiled and shook her head. She pushed her hair out of her face again still feeling flustered from her Tyler encounter and then she blurted out,

" It's hot. Do you want to go outside?" Klaus considered and allowed Caroline to take hold of his wrist and tow him through the house and to the backdoor. Kat caught Caroline's eye as she walked through the house. Katherine tilted her head and smirked at her friend as she saw her walk by with Klaus in tow.

There were a few people on the back patio, So Klaus and Caroline continued over the vast manicured lawn and towards the edge of the property where the lawn ran into the Lockwoods reservoir.

Caroline flopped down on the water's edge, and laid down in the grass, looking up at the sky above her. Klaus plopped down by her side and leaned back against the grass as they both watched the stars. The moon was almost full that night, lighting up the whole lawn like a large spot light.

" Thank god we're out of there. I was beginning to feel as if my skin was on fire." Caroline stated, pulling up clumps of grass with her fingers.

" Yes, well i imagine several shots of Vodka could do that to a person." He joked. Caroline rolled her eye's even though she knew he couldn't see.

" I needed something to cut loose, i don't think i could have been in there sober. I don't know how i did it before." She started, flipping over onto her stomach and propping herself up on her elbows to look at Klaus, who was leaning back on his own.

" So becoming a crazy party girl isn't how you'll be filling the gap left from your extra curriculars?" He asked, the trace of a grin on his lips. Caroline pursed her lips as if considering before answering.

" I'm not sure. Maybe crazy yes, party no." A glint came into Klaus eye.

" Crazy?" He asked a full grin on his face now. Caroline shrugged her shoulders, looking down and letting her hair fall over her face.

" So say if someone asked to, i don't know, jump in the lake right now. You'd do it?" He asked. Caroline let out a laugh.

" Maybe" she answered coyly. Klaus smirked and began to get to his feet as he spoke.

" I'm calling your bluff." He said, offering him her hand to pull her to her feet. Caroline narrowed her eyes at him.

" Do it then. Jump in." He countered, watching her, amused. Caroline's jaw dropped automatically and she pulled her sweater tighter around her.

" Are you insane. It's freezing out!" Caroline said although that wasn't strictly true. It was early september and unseasonably warm.

" and besides we don't have any towels or-" He cut her off as he pulled his shirt over his head.

" You're overthinking it. If you want to be crazy, then you can't be rational. Just jump." and like that Klaus was kicking off his shoes and jeans , and Caroline was shedding her sweater and pulling her t shirt dress over her head.

Before Caroline could think anymore Klaus had grabbed her hand and they had dashed into the water.

The cold stung her skin but she dove under the water letting the water wash over her skin. She came up for air gasping as a laugh escaped her chest. In that moment a wave of water hit her. She yelped as the splash came in contact with her skin. She slashed at the water to send a spray back at Klaus. They soon forgot how cold they were as they shrieked, splashing back and forth like they were four years old. Soon enough they were wrapped up, trying to wrestle the other person under water laughing all the while. Klaus only managed to dunk her by wrapping his arms around her and throwing them both backwards into the water.

When they surfaced his arms were still around her and they were standing in chest deep water. She was pressed against his chest with her hands against his arms the way they had been when she was trying to push him away from her. But now her hands rested against his skin, as she fought the urge to run his hands up and down his muscles. Their faces were inches apart and Caroline was distracted by the feeling of his warm hands against her lower back. Their eyes were locked in a gaze and Caroline couldn't help up breath a little heavier looking at him.

" What the matter" He breathed moving his lips ever so slightly closer to her own.

" Don't want to kiss me when Daddy isn't around to get you in trouble?" he teased her. Caroline laughed, throwing her face back to look at the sky and shaking her head

" Shut up." She joked, grinning, before leaning forward and pressing her lips hard against his. Klaus brought one of his hands up to press against the back of her neck and deepen the kiss. His other hand cupped around the back of her thigh and lifted her so her legs were wrapped around his waist, so he and the water could hold her combined weight. In that moment Caroline knew that Klaus was the only one she wanted to teach her how to be crazy.


	5. Relevant

Eighteen Chapter 5: Relevant

Caroline stood with her toes still in the water as she rung out her hair, running her fingers through it so it wouldn't dry in a matte. Klaus had toweled himself off with his t shirt and pulled on his jeans as Caroline pulled on her loose fitted T shirt dress. She unclipped her bra, pulled it out through her sleeve and rung that out as well.

" If i get pneumonia. I'm sending you my hospital bill." Caroline joked, picking up her sweater, damp from being splashed,and her bag from the ground. Klaus rolled his eyes and smirked at her.

" Oh please. It would be your own damn fault. What kind of crazy person goes swimming in the middle of the night." Caroline shoved against Klaus's shoulders with both of her hands, causing him to shift a bit and her to stumble, a lot.

" I can't tell if i'm still drunk." Caroline said, rubbing her eyes and stretching.

" judging by the bottle you emptied i would say yes. You're still drunk." He quipped. Caroline gave him a look and then pulled herself together.

"Well what about you then? Are you of sound mind and body?" Caroline demanded. Klaus just smirked at her.

" Seeing as my last drink was over an hour ago and i, unlike yourself, do not weigh five pounds i'm pretty sure i'm alright." He stated. Caroline narrowed her eyes, and then sprung up.

" I will be the judge of that. My mother is a cop. I am very well qualified." She stated, throwing her wet hair over her shoulder.

" I don't have a breathalyzer on me, so just like breath into my face and i'll tell you if it smells like alcohol." Caroline said, stepping forward and leaning her face into his.

" Well my tongue was just in your mouth like 5-6 minutes ago, can't you just go off that?" He teased, watching her amused.

" A: You are disgusting, but B: you make a valid point. You pass the breathalyzer. However, i will still be administering a field sobriety test. Go stand over there." She demanded, pointing to a spot a several feet across the lawn.

" Alright so…." Caroline thought for a moment, swaying in place,lifting her arms above her and then folding them across her forehead.

" Okay, So close your eyes, and then touch your finger to your nose." She said a smile on her face. Klaus looked at her pointedly, but she cross her arms and stared him down until he complied.

" Now recite the alphabet backwards" Caroline challenged. Klaus gave her another look.

" I'm almost positive that you couldn't do that sober." He stated.. Caroline considered such and the responsed,

"Another valid point. Let's continue. Next you should.." Caroline paused, tapping her fingers in front of her mouth and then pointing at him when the idea struck her.

" Hop up and down on one foot five times, turn around once and then walk a straight line." She said, very proud of herself.

Klaus did as she said, hopping up and down, turning on the spot, and then making a big deal of putting his arms out and walking in a straight line towards her. He got within a foot of her before he reached out, ,hooking his arms around her waist and spinning her in a circle. She shrieked, laughing as her feet were lifted from the ground. Klaus placed her on the ground, and she attempted to catch her breath and stop laughing. Just then her phone began to buzz. She dug around in her bag for it and saw Elena's number on the phone. She slide her finger across the screen to answer it.

"Elena? No i'm not at home, i'm still here. No i am not with Tyler! Why would you even ask that? The grill?" She looked up to meet Klaus's eyes a question on her face. He shrugged as if to say

" why not"

"Yeah, i'll meet you guys there in a bit." Caroline answered before ending the call.

Klaus and Caroline walked around the side of the Lockwood house, the party still in full swing aside. They walked out to the front and Caroline began to scan the area looking for Klaus's bike. He however, grabbed her hand and lead her towards a vintage muscle car parked between a pickup truck and a jeep.

"What happened to the bike?" Caroline asked, leaning against the side of the car and waiting for Klaus to unlock it manually.

" Well you see the bike is good for getting the girls interested, but after that i break out the car. Better for driving around town and making out." He joked, unlocking her door for her.

" There isn't even a back seat!" Caroline said agast.

" But the front is a bench." Klaus defended, sliding into the car next to her.

As they drove through town Caroline turned down the crank on the car's window and let the wind whip through her still damp hair. Goose bumps rose on her skin as the cold air rushed into the car.

While the rest of downtown Mystic falls was nearly abandoned, multiple cars were parked in front of the grill. Klaus angled his car into a spot close to the bar's entrance and shifted into park. Caroline shifted in her seat and attempted to shake out her damp sweater so she could pull it on over her almost equally wet dress. Klaus reached into the space behind the car seats and pulled out a zip up sweatshirt he'd stored there sometime ago. He offered the sweater out to her.

" Here take this." She accepted it gratefully, pulling it on over her dress. The sweater, that had been too big on Klaus in the first place, fell almost to the hem of Caroline's dress. Caroline took Klaus's hand and pulled him along behind her towards the entrance to the grill.

In the back of the restaurant Caroline's friends were settled in a large rounded booth in the back corner, drinking cups of hot black coffee and trying to sober up. Elena was leaning up against her boyfriend Damon, Bonnie was sitting with her head against the table, and Katherine was stretched across a large section of the booth with her feet up on her on again off again fling Mason Lockwood's lap. While Elena and Bonnie both raised their heads to look at Caroline in shock, Katherine watched her friend approach with a smirk and an expression of amusement on her face.

Caroline slid into the booth next to Elena, pulling Klaus with her. They all greeted each other, Elena and Bonnie slightly wary of Klaus's presence. For the first few moments after that they sat down, no one spoke a word to them, but rather stared in slight disbelief. Elena was the first to speak again, her voice soft and slightly scratchy.

" Care.. um..why is your hair wet?" Caroline laughed before she could think anything of her friends question.

" We went swimming." Caroline answered simply, rolling her lips together to stop herself from laughing again. Elena's jaw dropped slightly in shock and then pulled herself together. Murmurs of amazement and disbelief went around the table, Katherine began a story about a time in the 11th grade when she and Damon brothers Stefan had gone swimming in the pools underneath the falls in early april, and she'd been convinced she'd lose her pinky toe to frostbite;

Bonnie, who was clearly still the most intoxicated of the group, cut off Katerine and began to speak directly to Caroline.

" So you really weren't with Tyler? Because I saw you go upstairs and Elena saw Tyler follow you up a few minutes later so we sort of figured that the two of you had- i don't know, but then Kat said she saw you leave with this kid-" Bonnie motioned to Klaus across from her,

" and i just don't know what to think. I mean you haven't been acting like yourself lately, but none of us imagined you'd just straight up lose your mind and" Elena reached out and kicked Bonnie under the table, Causing her to yelp in pain and stop her sentence. Elena mouthed "Sorry" to Caroline.

" Lay off Bon. She's just having some fun." Kat defended, picking up her coffee cup and downing the rest of its contents. The conversation continued , slightly awkward from that point on, until Caroline glanced at the time on her phone.

" We should probably get going." Caroline said, turning to Klaus.

" I was supposed to be home three hours ago." She said extending her excuse.

Caroline and Klaus said goodbye to the rest of the table and headed for the door.

" So that wasn't at all weird." Caroline quipped as she climbed back into Klaus's car. Klaus laughed, as he buckled his seatbelt and started the engine. They pulled out of the spot and started down the street towards Caroline's house.

"Now i might be completely out of line to ask" Klaus began, looking over his shoulder to check his blind spot.

" But after everything tonight, what i saw at the party, and what Elena and Bonnie said… I was just wondering about what happened between you and Tyler."

Caroline let out the smallest of sighs and then began her answer.

"I don't know why they keep bringing it up. It's not even close to relevant anymore. We started going out in the summer before grade 11. We dated for almost all of junior year. We broke up around end of May, beginning of June, after he cheated me. Do you remember the exchange student? Haley? Well apparently they were hooking up almost the entire semester she was here. To me that's where the story ends. But you know, Bonnie, Elena, everyone, we've all been friends with Tyler since we were kids, and i think they're kind of hoping that after a while i would just look past this. I think they're hoping that senior year will end with us all together, singing arm and arm like the ending musical number in grease." Caroline looked over at Klaus and saw that he was covering his mouth with his hand.

" You're trying really hard not to laugh right now aren't you?" She asked grinning at him.

" I'm sorry." He said, the slightest of laughs escaping him.

" I've just got a very clear mental image of you in leather pants singing 'we go together". Caroline rolled her eyes and swatted at his shoulder as Klaus pulled up the car in front of her house. Caroline unbuckled her seatbelt and twisted in her seat to face Klaus.

" All i'm really saying is that i wouldn't worry about Tyler."

Klaus unbuckled his own seatbelt and leaned in close to Caroline until their faces were inches apart.

"And who said i was worried?"

Caroline rolled her eye's and leaned into Klaus's kiss as his hands tangled into her half dry hair, and her fingers interlocked behind his neck.

The living room light in Caroline's house flickered as she and Klaus sat in the car, her hands roaming under his shirt and his played with the hem of her dress, inching it upwards.

" I should go" She muttered against Klaus's lips before turning to look over her shoulder at the lights on in her house. She hoped her father had just fallen asleep in front of the tv and wasn't waiting up for her.

Klaus tightened his grip around her waist and leaned his face into her neck, his lips against her skin.

" I'm serious. I've gotta go!" she squealed as Klaus tickled her sides. She climbed out of the car and walked up the drive backwards, watching Klaus, watching her. As she turned to walk around the side of the house she heard his engine start again.

She hoisted up her window and climbed through, collapsing onto her bed and tried to fall asleep as her room continued to spin.


	6. Relax

Eighteen Chapter 6: Relax

Caroline woke up the next morning to her head pounding and a raw feeling in her throat. She hadn't been this hungover in a very long time, not since before she had been selected as miss mystic falls. She'd forgotten just how much fun the morning after a party could be. She turned over in bed with a groan and was surprised to see a glass of water, a gatorade, and two tylenols sitting on her bedside table next to a note from her mother, Liz, reading,

 _Will be working late tonight. Feel better. Love mom._

Her mother wasn't great with feelings, and now Caroline knew why, but the note was sweet none the less. She didn't doubt that her mother had left for work within an hour or two after Caroline had arrived home. Although Caroline had broke curfew and talked back to her parents all week, her mom was still taking care of her. For a minute, a knot of guilt began to form in her stomach, twisting its way around her insides. While both of her parents had been lying to her, it was really her mother who had the short end of the stick in this situation. Maybe that's why she worked so much. Liz had always been an avoider when it came to conflict. Caroline nursed her gatorade as she stayted in bed and watched the ceiling. She was listening for sounds outside her door, of her father moving around, some sign that he was awake. It was saturday so in theory he shouldn't be at the office, but it sounded pretty quiet . Maybe he had gone out. She didn't feel like dealing with him right now. She still had a headache. He could yell at her later.

Caroline pulled herself out of bed, pulled on a pair of baggy athletic shorts and a tshirt and put them on. She tip toed to her door, paranoid that she was mistaken and her father actually was in the house. The coast appeared clear, and she headed to the kitchen. She was in the midst of putting down a piece of bread in the toaster when she heard her parents bedroom door creak open. Shit. Why was her father still in his room? It was after 11, and he was a notoriously early riser. Caroline froze when she heard her father enter the kitchen, her back still too him.

"Don't panic. I'm on my way out." Bill said gruffly, stopping just short of the kitchen and adjusting his jacket sleeves, before he began to speak again.

"I've got to go up to Philadelphia for business. I'll be gone a few days, and i trust you'll manage to not burn the house down in the time that i'm gone." Caroline rolled her eyes and didn't turn to face her father.

A business trip on a saturday. How did that make sense? She couldn't believe she had bought all his lies for so long. Was she that naive? Or had she just been that desperate to believe that she was a part of a happy little family.

Caroline didn't respond to her father, but rather continued to make her breakfast, purposefully not looking at him. Bill sighed, and turned on his heel, heading towards the door. Caroline heard the front door slam and the sound echoed in her achy head.

After breakfast she flopped down on the couch and flipped through channels, looking for something mind numbing to preoccupy her thoughts. She really wasn't used to having his much free time. She thought about calling her friends, but she didn't really want to talk to them right now. It wasn't that she was mad at them. She understood them wanting her to get back with Tyler, so they could all be a cohesive group again, but she wished they understood that Caroline didn't have it in her to forgive and forget with Tyler. She could play nice, she had tried to play nice, but that obviously didn't work. If the party last night had passed without incident then maybe she and Tyler could have hung around each other, but not now. She could call Kat. Katherine seemed to be the only one who understood how Caroline felt about Tyler's cheating. Katherine had cheated and been cheated on. She knew both sides of the story. But Caroline knew the unspoken rules about calling Kat the day after a party. If the sun was still up, then Katherine was still down. It would do Caroline no good to wake the beast. If she called and Kat was still asleep she'd get her eyes scratched out.

Caroline began to doze on the couch, falling asleep to the sounds of middle aged women fighting on reality tv. She slept into the mid afternoon.. When she woke up she felt slightly groggy and her limbs all felt restless. She rubbed her eyes and sat up on the couch, stretching her arms above her head. She glanced at the clock and saw that she still had hours and hours before her mom would be home. She decided she needed to get out of the house for a little while and try to relax her muscles. She slipped her feet into her old flip flops and headed out the door. She stopped off at Mrs Fells house to pick up her shih tzu Fluffy. She put in her headphones and clicked onto an audiobook on her phone. She often fell asleep listening to a book, letting other people's voices drowned out her own thoughts. Caroline wondered around her neighbourhood and those around it, taking back alleys and side streets, trying to pretend she wasn't nosily looking into her neighbours backyards. The sun was still high in the sky and the heat beat down against the pavement, and Caroline found herself several miles from her home. Fluffy had began to pant and drag against his leash, so Caroline scooped the small dog up and began to walk them both towards their own street. She was still a few miles from home when a recognizable muscle car came around the corner behind her, its windows rolled down and a song she hadn't heard before coming from the speakers. The car slowed as it approached her, slowing to a crawl so it matched her pace. Klaus was sitting behind the wheel and he reached over to turn down with music so he could speak. Caroline probably should have been conscious of the fact that she was standing before him in baggy jogging shorts, a mystic high cheer team t shirt, and a messy bun. But the night prior she had jumped into a body of water with him in just her underwear, so there was no point in feeling self conscious now. Caroline continued to walk with her face forward, the dog against her chest.

" I don't take candy from strangers" She quipped, trying to conceal the slight smile on her face.

" Well i was actually going to ask to to help me search for my lost puppy." He joked, leaning back in his seat.

" If this is the beginning of you stalking me, you should just know that my mother's police chief." She stated still trying to keep her face in a straight line. Klaus laughed, and then spoke again.

" This is pure coincidence i swear" His words only made believable as they were miles from her house,

" But while i have you here," he reached behind his seat and pulled out her folded up sweater from the previous night.

" So, is this you being a gentlemen, and kindly returning my treasured and worldly possession? Or the more likely option this is just your sad and desperate excuse to keep talking to me." She teased. Klaus rolled his eyes in return while Caroline spoke again.

" But i guess if you're returning my sweater, then i should probably give you yours." she mentioned, shrugging her shoulders and readjusting fluffy in her arms. Klaus leaned over in his seat and pushed open the passenger side door. Caroline narrowed her eyes at him, but after a moment, climbed into the car. Fluffy jumped off Caroline's lap and tried to crawl over onto Klaus's.

"When i said i lost my puppy, that was just a ploy,i didn't intend you to steal me one." He joked, trying to push the dog off of him.

"Fluffy is . He just accompanies me on walks." Caroline defended as the dog settled back into her lap.

" Didn't look like he did much walking." Klaus teased as Caroline swatted at his shoulder. They pulled up to the house and Caroline exited the car, and walked over to house and plopped Fluffy down in the fenced yard. Klaus was standing on the sidewalk in front of her house looking up at it with his hands in his pockets.

" There are no cars in the driveway so i assume it's safe for me to enter. Your father isn't waiting inside with a shotgun is he?"

" Well, my dad's off on a fake business trip, and my mother's at work as usual so…" Caroline unlocked the front door and stood back to gesture for Klaus to enter the house.

Klaus's sweater was sitting on the couch where she had left it that morning. She walked over to the couch and scoped it out, extending her arm to hand it to Klaus.

"This is odd. I thought boys never got back the sweaters they gave to girls." Caroline rolled her eyes and stepped forward slightly.

" I mean i could keep it" she said, running one of the sleeves between her fingers.

"If you wanted." she finished, looking up at his through her eyelashes, so close that their chests were almost touching. Just then there was a knock on the door, and the two sprung apart.

Caroline moved to the side and walked over to the door to answer it.

" Bonnie?" She asked, surprised to see her friend standing there.

" Hey Care," Bonnie began awkwardly, rubbing her hands up and down her arms.

"I'm sorry to just show up, but you weren't answering your phone, and i really just wanted to apologize about last night. I talked to Elena and Kat and i get i was out of line. I was drunk, and kind of shocked to be honest, i mean," Bonnie began to ramble.

" I just thought when i saw you and Tyler go upstairs together that you'd be working it out, but then you showed up at the grill with Klaus, who by the way i have never even seen you speak to before, saying that you've been what? Skinny dipping? You have to admit it sounds kind of insane! I mean who even is he- hhii klaus" Klaus had appeared over Caroline's shoulder, frightening Bonnie, with a grin on his face.

" Well um, Thank you Bon, for that heartfelt apology. I'll see you school." Caroline quipped, smiling sweetly as she closed the door in her friends face.

Klaus was standing back in the living room, grinning.

" You're friends not exactly my biggest fan." He joked, amused at the situation.

" I really don't care what she thinks." Caroline stated, walking over to Klaus with purpose and pushing him down onto the couch. She climbed on him, straddling his lap and tangling her fingers into his hair as his lips found their way onto her own. His hands worked their way under her shirt, tracing circles on her back with his fingers. Caroline gasped as Klaus flipped them over so she was laying flat on her back on the couch with Klaus hovering over her. This, Caroline thought, was far more exciting than reality television.


	7. Radio

Eighteen chapter 7: Radio

Klaus was gone by the time Caroline's mothers cruiser pulled into the driveway at 12:30 that night. He'd stayed the rest of the afternoon and into the evening. They'd made out on the couch for a few hours and then Klaus had sat on top of the kitchen counter while Caroline flitted around, making dinner and going off on tangents about her friends and family.

After he had left Caroline had wandered around her house feeling strangely high. She felt as if she had lost complete and utter control of herself and all her actions. She was running on autopilot, and apparently her cruise control was set to Klaus's speed. Her old self from a few months ago would probably think that she had completely lost her mind. But as of the moment, Caroline was pretty pleased with her new self, at least for now. She was having fun. Genuine fun, for the first time, in a long time. She deserved to be reckless and unpredictable for a while.

Caroline had left the left overs from dinner on a plate sealed with plastic wrap in the fridge. She had placed a sticky note on it for her mother the way she used to when her mother worked late and her father wasn't home. It was her form of repayment for the hangover care package her mother had left her that morning.

Caroline had tried to stay awake until her mother arrived home. She layed in bed listening for the sound of her mother's car coming down the street, trying to ignore the tingling sensation on her skin, but she'd accidentally fallen asleep before her mother had gotten off work. Despite the fact that she had slept in that morning, and taken a good two hour nap that afternoon, she was still utterly exhausted.

Care had gotten up the next morning and expected her mother to still be asleep in her room before her next shift, but she was surprised when she exited her room and found her mother's cruiser not in the driveway. She guessed liz and gotten up and gone back into work right away. The house suddenly felt very quiet to Caroline. She could hear her heart thump in her chest and her thoughts swirled in her head. She shut the door tight to her bathroom and cranked the knobs on the shower up to almost full heat. She stood under the stream of hot water and listened to the sound of the drops hit hard against the glass wall and tile shower floor. She didn't know how long she was in there, but by the time the hot water began to run out she was sitting on the shower floor with her legs up against her chest.

She pulled all the blinds in the living room and double checked to see if the doors were locked. She turned out all the lights and huddled down on the couch, the glow of the tv the only light in the room. She heard her phone bleep and buzz throughout the day but she didn't feel like talking to anyone. She didn't want to hear anymore of Bonnie's apologies, or Elena's excuses, her head was already too full.

That night she heard her mother arrive home, almost as late as the night before, but she didn't get up to speak to her. She listened as her mother got ready for bed, and then turned over and attempted to go to sleep herself.

…..

Caroline woke up the next morning feeling as if she hadn't slept at all. Her eyes were sore and red, and the dark circles beneath them seemed to age her about 10 years. She considered staying in bed. Her mother had probably already left for work and her father wasn't home until the next day. They would never know if she didn't show up for school, but just as she was thinking this her phone buzzed with a text from Elena. Caroline had overslept and her friends were already outside and waiting for her. She groaned as she rolled out of bed. She pulled on the first clothes she could find on her floor, a pair of beat up faded jeans, t shirt, and oversized button up sweater. She grabbed her school bag off the kitchen counter and headed for the door. The sky was dark and grey that day, the air cool against her skin as she made her way down the walkway towards the street. The bleak weather seemed to match Caroline's mood for the day.

As soon as Caroline slide into the back seat of the car and the gilbert twins got a look at her they knew something was up. Kat demanded that Elena drive through one of the coffee places in town as there was no way that Caroline would make it through the day without crashing unless they plied her with copious amounts of caffeine.

After pulling through the drive thru, Kat pushed a large sugary coffee and a fluffy pastry into Caroline's hands.

" Eat up Care. You look like hell." Kat quipped in her usual oh so sensitive tone. Caroline rolled her eyes but took the food gratefully as she hadn't had the opportunity to have breakfast that morning.

Caroline avoided Bonnie's gaze as she leaned against her locker and waited for her friends to collect their books so they would be ready to head to class when the bell rang. Caroline had biology first period, and tho she didn't mind the class, today she was dreading it. She'd just have to suffer through her classes and look forward to climbing back into bed the second the final bell rang.

The signal to move to class sounded through the hallway and students began to bustle and move towards their classes. Caroline lagged behind her friends, dragging her feet and trying not to look as if she was amount to commit mass homicide.

"Having a good morning?" Someone asked from over her shoulder. She didn't have to turn around to know who the voice belonged to.

" Oh just the best" She answered taking a long drink of her coffee, letting it burn her tongue and throat as she drank. Klaus quicked his pace until they were walking in stride, Caroline's friends still a few meters ahead of them.

" Do you want to get out of here then?" He asked, smirking at her. Caroline slowed her steps until she had stopped in her tracks and narrowed her eyes at him, her books against her chest.

" We have school." She stated as if it wasn't obvious, Klaus who was now a few steps ahead of her twisted to face her.

" So?' He asked, now walking very slowly backwards.

"So? So there's classes, and attendance, and missed homework, and" Klaus cut her off,

" So? What happened to being crazy?" He asked again, his eyes glinting.

Caroline considered for a moment, biting the inside of her lip in thought, before letting of a sigh and nodding. Klaus's smirk turned into a grin as he lead her past her biology classroom where her friends were waiting and towards the exit to the student lot.

Klaus had his car again that day, so rather then climbing on the back of his bike, Caroline pulled open the passenger side door and slide onto the leather bench seat. Klaus slide in in front of the wheel and turned the key in the ignition.

" So," Caroline began, looking over to watch Klaus as he backed up the car and turned out of the student lot.

" Where exactly are we going?" She asked, finishing her coffee and picking at the edge of the cup, rolling up the rim and shredding it to small pieces. Klaus considered for a second, drumming his fingers against the steering wheel, before he answered.

" What about the beach?" He asked, looking over at her to seek her approval.

"The beach?" Caroline asked incredulous.

" Why not?" Klaus pressed, a slight laugh in his voice as he questioned her.

" We could be in Virginia beach in what? Less than two hours? We could be there and back far before the end of the school day". Caroline thought about it for a moment, her eyes narrowed slightly while she considered.

" I'm not going swimming again." She said, crossing her arms across her chest. Klaus smiled and turned on his signal onto the exit towards Hampton and Virginia beach.

…

Caroline sat sideways with her back against the car door as they drove down the highway towards the beach, her feet up on the seat rested against Klaus's legs as he drove. She had kicked off her sandals on the floor, and she wriggled her toes, looking at the faint and chipping pale pink nail polish. Her head fell against the back of the seat, and she struggled to keep her eyes open, the coffee unable to combat her exhaustion. The vintage radio hummed quietly in the background. A song by the bangles began to play and without realizing it Caroline began to sing along quietly,

" Close your eyes, give me your hand, darlin', do you feel my heart beating? Do you understand?"

Caroline noticed Klaus glancing at her from the wheel and smiling.

" what?" She asked, lifting her head slightly off the seat.

"Nothing you just have a nice voice." He complimented, turning his eyes back to the road.

" Shut up." Caroline said quietly, chucking her crumpled up coffee cup at him while rolling her eyes and then shutting them. She leaned her head sideways against the seat again.

"What?" He asked, deflecting the cup, with a laugh in his words.

" Im serious! You're quite good. You could definitely be the only girl in a karaoke bar that people don't hate." Caroline rolled her eyes again but let a smile sneak onto her face. She reached over and turned up the volume on the radio.

….

High season was just coming to an end, so late monday morning on Virginia beach wasn't the most exciting place. Not to mention the storm clouds that were rolling in made the whole sky dark and menacing while the water crashed against the beach in strong grey waves.

Caroline and Klaus sat in the sand several feet from the water edge, watching the waves crash in silence. Caroline eyes still felt heavy and weak and almost against her will she let her head fall against Klaus's shoulder.

" Do you ever have those days where it feel like everything wrong with your life falls on you at once." Caroline asked, her voice soft and quiet.

" I know i'm not the best at dealing with my problems, that i just push things around and don't deal with anything. I mean there's the whole deal with my parents, but right now i feel like everything is sitting on my chest, and i can't breathe." Klaus reached over and brushed the stray strands of hair out of her face, brushing his fingers softly against her cheek. Caroline tried to let out a sad smile, but her attempt faltered. Caroline could tell that Klaus saw that she didn't want to talk about it, or that she didn't know how. Klaus got to his feet and offered Caroline his hand to pull her to stand.

…

"Better than a school lunch?" Klaus asked as Caroline took a large bite into the burger that the waitress had placed in front of her.

"That's not hard." Caroline said, shuddering to think of the slop that her friends were surely eating at the moment.

Caroline's mood had picked up slightly as the morning had come to a close, as she and Klaus had walked along the beach and then through the streets just above, window shopping and talking but not saying much of anything. Her chest didn't feel so heavy, but all her earlier thoughts had just been pushed to the back of her mind. She knew they would come back and consume her eventually, but hopefully that would be much later, like when she was in bed that night. Then she could tie her anxiety into tight knots in her stomach that she could work around.

They sat in a peeling white and blue leather booth at a diner a few blocks up from the beach, eating greasy burgers and baskets of fries, musing about what they might be missing in class that day, and not really caring. It was only the second week of school after all.

By the time they started their drive back to Mystic falls the storm clouds over head and just began to open up, and rain began to splatter across the windshield of the car. The rain fell harder as they drove, the windshield wipers working at top speed to provide even a shred of rain interfered with the radio reception so rather than listen to static, caroline laid down across the car seats, her head rested against Klaus leg as she read the novel she had stashed in her bag out loud.

The rain slammed hard against the car as they drove, but Caroline's voice was sure and strong as she spoke, bringing to life the characters on the page to life.

By the time they pulled into Mystic falls, it was just after four o'clock. The rain had slowed their drive but it didn't matter. There was no one waiting at home for her. They pulled onto Caroline street and the rain continued to pour down. The car came to a complete stop in front of Caroline's house, but she wasn't ready to go inside yet. She wasn't ready to be alone again. She glanced up at Klaus, whose arm was rested across the front of her shoulders. The rain was loud outside the car, but inside the heater was running on full blast. Caroline sat up, so she and Klaus were face to face. She looked into his eye's, hoping he couldn't see the insecurity in her own. In an instant their lips were connected. His hands worked her sweater off her shoulders, and then worked their way up the back of her tank top, her skin warm against his fingertips. She pulled at the hem of his t shirt and lifted it up and over his head. His lips found their way to her neck before before finding their way back to her own lips. Her hands roamed his chest, and traced over his stomach was just working on the snap of her jeans when a sharp knock sounded on the passenger side door.


	8. Reliable

Eighteen Chapter 8: Reliable

Bill Forbes was standing in the downpouring rain,leaning down to look into the car, his glasses flecked with water droplets. His face was in a straight line and appeared calm, but Caroline could see the anger boiling under his surface. Bill gave his daughter a curt look through the car window and motioned for her to get into the house, before he turned on his heel and headed back inside himself.

" He" Caroline began, reaching backwards and doing up the clasp on her bra,

" is not supposed to be home until tomorrow." She said, climbing off Klaus's lap with a huff and pulling on her sweater.

" If you don't hear from me in the next twenty four hours assume that my father has honour killed me. My funeral will most likely be the Sunday after next , please make a charitable donation in lieu of flowers." and with that said, Caroline pushed open the passenger side door and ran through the rain towards her house. She paused for a second with her hand on the front door knob. She took a breath in an attempt to calm herself and then pushed open the door.

Her father was sitting on the couch in the living room, his glasses pushed up onto his forehead as he rubbed his eyes with his thumb and index finger.

Caroline shrugged off her wet sweater and pushed her fingers through her wet wet hair, unsure on how to proceed from this point.

" What are you doing home? I thought you were away for _work_ until tomorrow." Her voice stumbled over the word work, knowing that it was far from the truth. Her father stopped rubbing his eyes and look up at her.

"Is that really what you want to say to me right now? Or do you maybe want to explain yourself a little bit, because i've got to tell you Caroline i'm kind of at a loss with you." Caroline bite the inside of her cheek and didn't answer, but she also didn't break from her father's gaze.

" Believe it or not i do have a breaking point. I can take you throwing away your social accomplishments, and talking back to your mother and I, but i will not stand aside and watch you throw away your reputation and your life, I've see it happen too many times in this town. Girls who get careless and end up pregnant and trapped here before they get the chance to even apply to college."

Caroline could feel her face getting hot as she grinded her teeth. She wanted to remain calm but her blood boiled just looking at her father and soon she lashed out against him,

" and that's what happened with you right? I'm the reason. I'm the reason you're trapped here. Well thank god for all your fucking business trips." Caroline stormed from the room before her father could respond, slamming her bedroom door behind her. She cranked up the volume on her speakers and turned her playlist to a band she knew her father hated. She peeled off all her wet clothes and dumped them into her laundry hamper. She pulled on a t shirt and pajama shorts, turned off the lights and climbed into her bed. She didn't care that it wasn't even five o'clock yet. She didn't care that she hadn't eaten dinner, she didn't care that her speakers were so loud that her head had began to pound. All she wanted was to pull her bedcovers over her head, bury her face in her pillow and sleep until her world made sense again.

Caroline had her headphones shoved in her ears, listening to a book over her booming music. She noticed, but did not turn over in bed, when her mother arrived home from work, cracked open her bedroom door and tip toed over to the speakers to turn them off. She almost sat up in bed and motioned her mother over to sit with her. She wanted her mother to stroke her hair and talk softly about nothing until Caroline was ready to fall asleep. The way Liz had when Caroline was younger and couldn't get to bed at night. But Caroline stayed under her covers and let her mother leave the room.

…

Caroline had slept only a few hours, when she got out of bed and stood under the steady stream of water, hoping it would wake her up. She was ready nearly an hour before she had to leave for school but she didn't want to leave her room. She sat at the end of her bed, her headphones still in her ears, as she eat an old granola bar she had found in the bottom of her bag. When the gilberts texted her that they were outside, she climbed out her bedroom window once again. Her mornings continued in the same way for the rest of the week.

At school she forced herself to be pleasant. She nodded along with her friends conversations, interjecting tidbits to prove she was listening. She sat with them at lunch and pushed her food around her plate, trying to look present. Her friends still knew that something was up, but they weren't pushing it. Caroline was acting normal enough, and that pleased them. Bonnie hadn't been on her back much more about Klaus as she hadn't seen them together since that time in Caroline's living room. All her friends had assumed that Caroline had gone home sick on monday when she hadn't followed them into class, and she hadn't corrected them. She and Klaus didn't have any of the same classes, and he didn't frequent the cafeteria, so lunch was out. Every day that Caroline had come home after school that week her father had been there expecting her. So after school was out. When she got home she would head straight to her room and stay there until she was sure he had gone to sleep.

Klaus had texted her a few times and they had talked that way over the past few days, mostly the exchange of inside jokes or sarcastic quips rather than anything serious. Still, it was nice to have someone to talk to, someone who wasn't expecting anything of her. She didn't have to be her old "normal" self just to please him the way she did with her friends.

….

Dinner that friday night was spent in almost silence. Her father and mother were surprisingly not working that night. Which to Caroline she'd be spending yet another night alone in her room. She should invest in better headphones, her ears were starting to ache from the shape of the bud.

She hadn't planned on joining her parents for dinner, but her mother had knocked on her door insistently until Caroline had opened it. Liz and ushered her daughter to the dining room table before she had the chance to protest.

Caroline pushed her peas around her plate, poking at her meat loaf but not actually eating any of it. Her father watched her carefully, and Caroline was sure her father would accuse her of having an eating disorder any day now, just the final excuse he needed to send her to see a therapist. She had noticed that her father had left his laptop open to a search engine looking up physiatrists in Richmond. She was sure all her father wanted was to have her doped up on downers so she'd be the docile doting daughter she used to be.

Caroline had been plotting when the appropriate moment to leave the table was when a knock sounded against the front door. Caroline had tried to stand up to answer it, but her father beat her to it, pushing back against his chair and striding towards the door.

Liz and Caroline heard the door open, and Caroline was surprised to hear more then one of her friends voices sounding from the door. Bill returned to the living room with the Gilbert twins and Bonnie in tow, they were all dressed in their cheer uniforms, their hair either in bouncy curls or a high ponytail.

" We didn't mean to barge in on your dinner." Elena apologized, looking at the half finished plates on the table.

" We tried calling but your phones probably off. Care, we thought you might want a ride to the game tonight." Kat finished taking over for her sister. Caroline opened her mouth to speak, trying to think of a polite excuse as to why she didn't want to attend but before she could speak her mother had jumped in,

" That's so sweet of you girls. Caroline why don't you go grab your jacket, you don't want to make your friends late!" Caroline took a breath to decline the offer but she saw the look her mother was giving her and decided she didn't have the energy to start a fight at that moment. She grabbed her jacket from the hall closet and followed her friends out the door, waving to her parents as she exited the house.

They piled into the Gilbert SUV and headed back towards the school.

" Sorry to ambush you Care." Kat said from the driver's seat, throwing her friend a smile.

" But you can't miss the first football game of the year. It would be tragic."

"Tragic" Caroline replied sarcastically, rolling her eyes and settled into the back seat, dreading the next few hours.

…

The unseasonably warm weather had turned unseasonably cold. Caroline rubbed her hands together as she sat on the uncomfortable metal bleachers. The majority of the school had turned out despite the cold weather, screaming and hollering as the players poured onto the field. The opposing school had a small collection of fans, their blue and gold apparel sticking out starkly against the red of the Mystic falls fans. Caroline's fingers began to go numb and she was grateful once again that she was one longer a cheerleader and didn't have to be out in this weather in a short skirt and tight top. As the game started people began to shout and cheer, causing Caroline's head to pound. One thing hadn't changed, Caroline still hated football. How had she sat through so many games before this? Well she guessed she'd had the back to the games on most other occasions but still. She was being jostled back and forth as overly excited sophomore and freshmen girls jumped around in the stands beside her. She couldn't take much more of this. Caroline pushed her way out of the stands and ducked under them. She pulled out her phone and scrolled through her contacts until she found the name she was looking for. When the call picked up Caroline didn't wait for him to say hello,

" Save me." She demanded, looking up and staring at the shoes of the people on the stands above.

"What are you-" She cut him off before he could finish his sentence.

" Just listen." Caroline said, holding out her phone so he could more clearly hear the sound of the crowd.

" dear lord, are you at a football game?" Klaus asked as he tried not to laugh.

" Hence the need to be saved." Caroline said, dodging out of the way as spilled popcorn fell through the cracks in the bleacher. Klaus did let out a laugh then, but conceded.

" I'll be there in a minute." he laughed as the line went dead.

…

" Thank god." Caroline said as she emerged from under the bleachers. Klaus was leaning against the hood of his car, the headlights still on, with his arms crossed against his chest. She pulled her jacket more tightly around her as she headed towards the car.

"Not so quick." Klaus said, a grin on his face. Caroline stopped a few meters from him.

" Now i'm not a taxi service, so i will be requiring a payment for services rendered." He joked. Caroline rolled her eyes and crossed her arms against her chest, trying not to smile.

" Well i don't have my purse." She quipped.

" I'm not interested in your money. More so in a certain set of skills i hear you possess." Caroline narrowed her eyes confused, until Klaus put a dramatically peppy look on his face and over exaggerated while miming a clap and raising his arms in a high v.

" No." She stated, crossing her arms even tighter over her chest and shaking her head.

" Come on! You're back at a football game. Isn't it bring up all those fond memories? Don't you just want to…. Cheer." He poked fun at her. She scowled back at him.

" Just one cheer, and then we can go." He offered, pouting. Caroline sighed, and then glanced around the parking lot even though she knew there was no one there to witness them.

" One." She finally agreed, rolling her neck side to side and letting out a huff,

"And you can't laugh." She stated, glaring at him. He agreed. Caroline put on her best cheer smile, and cleared her throat.

" _Timber_ " clap clap clap " _Wolves_ " clap clap clap " _fight and claw to get that ball_ and get that smirk off of your face before i claw it off myself." She finished as he tried to contain his laughter.

" Are we done? Can we get out of her already?"

" Yes yes that was great. So just finish it off with a high kick and we can get out of here, ouch" Caroline had walked up and rammed her fist hard into his shoulder.

" Alright, alright let's go." 7 He said, laughing and walking over to pull open the passenger side door for her.

Caroline slide into the car and buckled her seat belt as Klaus got into the driver's side.

" So where exactly do you want to go?" He asked, glancing at her. Caroline shrugged her shoulders, she hadn't actually thought that far in advance.

" Well in that case, i have a few ideas." Klaus said as he turned the key in the ignition.


	9. Retro

Eighteen Chapter 9: Retro

They drove a few counties over, away from Mystic Falls and the dreaded football game. Klaus turned off the highway and down a cracked concrete road at which at the end there was a run down drive in movie theatre. On a friday night, the lot for the theatre was almost packed. The sign out fronted stated that the double feature was that of an animated cartoon, followed by a horror were too late catch the beginning of the first film, but they paid full admission and pulled into the back of the lot content to watch the last half of the movie and catch the entirety of the second.

Caroline had spent the whole ride from the school leaning against the inside of the car door, her feet in Klaus's lap as they drove.

" The drive in? Really? Did you not get enough action in this car on monday?" She mused, half joking, as she had a realization about where they were. Klaus rolled his eyes,

" As i recall, someone's father happened to have very inconvenient timing," He joked, wrapping his arm around the back of her knees and pulling her so she was scooted forward on the seat, closer to him.

" You're gross." Caroline joked, as Klaus's hand reached up to cradle her face. He moved his face closer to hers and smirked at her.

" You're the one who brought it up" He said jokingly as his other hand stroked up and down the side of her thigh. Caroline rolled her eyes but leaned forward to meet his kiss. There was no point in watching the end of the first movie, they had much better things to do.

…..

By the time they were driving back to mystic falls it was past 11 as the second movie didn't start until after 9. The football game at that point was long over, but caroline knew there would most likely be a party at one of the player's houses going on, and that's where Caroline was sure she could find her friends if she felt the need to look. She had texted them that she hadn't been feeling well and that she'd caught a ride home with someone after the game. They hadn't questioned her much, more concerned with making it to the house party on time to score a good parking spot.

They'd cruised into Mystic falls to find the streets mostly empty. Caroline had her window rolled down and let the cold hair whip her hair around her face. The radio was set to an old retro rock station thats signal barely reached the town.

Caroline had glanced out the window and into the mirror on her side of the door. She noticed a familiar SUV turn the corner behind and came speeding up to met them at the red light they were currently stopped at.

" Shit!" Caroline hissed as she ducked down, hiding her head on the seat beside her.

" What are you do-" But Klaus's words faded as the SUV stopped beside them and he saw who was inside the vehicle. Klaus smirked as he shot a wave over at the gilberts and Bonnie. After the light turned green, Klaus made a sharp left turn off the main road.

" Are they gone?" Caroline asked, raising her head off the seat slightly to try and peek out the window.

" You're in the clear." Klaus said with the laugh as Caroline sat up straight again.

" Are you that ashamed to be seen with me?" Klaus asked, a joke in his voice. Caroline rolled her eyes and shoved against his shoulder.

" I told them i went home sick because i didn't want a lecture ditching them." Caroline defended, though she shuttered to think of the lecture her friends would have doled out if they had caught in her Klaus's car, her hair a mess and the front of her shirt buttoned wrong. Just at that moment Caroline's phone lit up and Kats name appeared. Caroline's heart stopped for a moment and considered not answering but knew that would only make it worse. She cleared her throat and tried to put on a voice as if she had just woken up.

" Hello?" She said meekly, gritting her teeth as Klaus glanced over at her amused.

" Care? Did we wake you up?" Katerine asked, an almost knowing tone in her voice. Caroline yawned for effect as her friend spoke.

" Yeah, sorry, what's up?" Caroline asked, hoping her friend would catch the hint.

" Nothing, go back to sleep. I'll call you tomorrow" Kat promised and then clicked off the line.

Caroline powered off her phone just incase, and tossed it into her bag on the floor.

" Well aren't you quite the actress." Klaus joked, still smirking.

Caroline tossed her hair over her shoulder dramatically and gave a smug shrug of her shoulders. The turn off for her neighbourhood was coming up ahead,

" Now are you ready to be dropped off at he or should i keep driving?" Caroline gave him a look,

" you should know by now, the answer to that question is almost always no."

Klaus rolled his own eyes in return, but pressed against the gas peddle, sending the car speeding past Caroline's neighbourhood.

….

It was just after six o'clock when the sunlight began to streak through the car windshield. Caroline began to sur, her eyes flickering open from the muted morning light. Klaus's arm was draped around her waist while they both lay on their sides in the front seat of front seat of the car. Her sweater had come off at some point but the rest of her clothes were still on. Klaus's shirt was crumpled on the floor so Caroline's back was pressed against his bare chest.

They hadn't meant to fall asleep in the car. Klaus had driven up to top of the falls and they had parked up behind the picnic tables. They'd sat cross legged in the car, the radio still on but slightly staticy. They'd played more rounds of cards then they could count, arguing over outcomes and accusing the other of cheating. Around midnight they had taken a walk over to the river and where the falls started. They had tried to skip rocks on the water but the river had been running too fast for them to catch.

Klaus had jokingly asked her if she had wanted to swim and in response she had reached down and cupped water in her hand to splash him. Caroline had shrieked as Klaus had chased her through the large field that separated the river and her car. He caught her and they both went tumbling to the ground, laughing. They'd rolled around in the tall grass until a few drops of rain began to fall. They got back into the car with the intent of heading back into town. However before Caroline could reach back to buckle her seatbelt she felt Klaus's arm snaked around the back of her shoulders and pulled her towards him.

Caroline was slightly confused upon waking up as to where she was but the events of the previous night soon came back to her. She felt Klaus shift behind her as he too woke up. He pulled against her hips with the arm he had wrapped around her waist, and she willingly flipped over to face him. His eyes were only slightly open but there was still a slight grin on his face.

" Be brutally honest" Caroline began her voice soft and quiet, her mouth only inches from his own.

" is my breath totally rancid?" She asked, Klaus hardly awake, began to laugh, and leaned in to kiss her as way of an answer.

….

Caroline tried not to think of the fact that her parents were probably freaking out about the fact that she didn't come home last night, and that she was sure to be in a world of trouble when she arrived home.

Klaus drove back towards town and parked in front of one of the roadside diners that truckers and hungover partiers tended to frequent. Caroline knew she should be rushing home to ease her parents worries and beg for their forgiveness but if she was already in trouble she may as well enjoy her last bit of freedom.

She and Klaus sat in a booth in the restaurant's far corner by the windows, eating off plates loaded with eggs, bacon, pancakes and sausage. Caroline sat with her back to the door, and Klaus facing it. Klaus had been taking a large drink of his coffee, and almost choked on it as he noticed who was entering the diner.

Katerine came strutting through the restaurant, her curls bouncing as she walked, a smirk on her face. She slide across from Caroline and beside Klaus, looking amused.

" Now how did i know you'd be here?" Kat smirked, poking Caroline under the table with her foot.

" Cute shirt Care. Isn't it the same one you were wearing last night?" Katherine asked knowingly, and seeing her friends face go red.

" Busted." Kat said in an almost sing song voice and then continued.

" You are so damn lucky that it was me driving last night and not one of those other two. Because if Bonnie or Elena had been paying closer attention and more clearly seen your little disappearing act in that car, it would have taken a lot more than a poorly acted phone call to get you out of it." Kat finished taking Caroline's fork out of her hand and shoveling some of the breakfast into her own mouth.

" and I also took the liberty of texting your mother saying that your phone died, but could you please stay over at my house? I figured if you did go home you could just tell your parents you had a headache or we'd had a fight. But if you didn't go home, which by the looks of things you haven't, you still be in the clear." Caroline's eyes widened at her friend's words.

" Wow. Kat.. Thanks." Caroline said, still slightly in shock.

" No thanks need. I'm just a great friend and lover of all things trouble causing, and it looks like this is just that." Kat stood up to leave and clapped Caroline on the shoulder as she walked by.

" Proud of you kid." Kat said over her shoulder as she walked out of the diner.


	10. Ride

Eighteen chapter 10: Ride

The rest of september passed quickly. Caroline got back into the swing of school, settling into her classes and adjusting to the personalities of all the other students in them. She joined the yearbook committee, who met at the same time her friends had cheer practice, meaning she never had to wait around for a ride home. So on friday nights the Gilberts and Bonnie would arrive at her house and she would climb into the SUV and head to the football game with them. While her friends performed and cheered on the sidelines, Caroline would snap a few action shots of them, the players and the crowd for the yearbook and then make the call for Klaus to come and get her. They'd drive around town or the surrounding areas, talking, joking, or going to park somewhere. They'd stay out early into the morning most nights and Caroline would climb into her bedroom window. Sometimes they hung out on saturdays after they both slept in that morning, or occasional sunday if her mother was at work and her father was locked up with work in his office.

She still barely ever saw Klaus at school. Half because they didn't share any of the same classes, half because it seemed that Klaus hardly ever showed up for school. Caroline had mused to him once that it was odd that in years previous she would see him in the hallway all the time, even though in the past two years they'd only shared one class. Klaus had blushed a bit but attempted to reclaim his dignity when he admitted that he used to seek her out between classes. Caroline had raised her eyebrows at him and he'd rolled his eyes and defended himself.

" I was just laying the groundwork, and i mean it seems to have worked." He stated, referring the fact that they were parked in his car at that moment, their legs tangled together and her bra somewhere behind the two seats.

It had been a month since Klaus and Caroline had started...what? Hanging out? Hooking up? Caroline couldn't say that they were dating necessarily, but they were doing something. It was almost sad for Caroline to admit that at this point he was basically her best friend. She still loved the Gilberts and Bonnie and all her friends from the squad, but she still felt the need to put on a show around them. Things were easier with Klaus, but did that automatically equal a relationship?

They still hadn't done… it. They had stuff, most of which within the walls of his car, but they hadn't done that. They had come somewhat close on a few different occasions but it had never gone that far. Caroline had never had sex in a car but she wasn't averse to it. She wasn't averse to sex, although she had only done it with one other person before. She'd only had two boyfriends in her life, and her tenth grade relationship with Matt hadn't gone beyond a few awkward over the bra boob squeezes. Did she have some complex about having sex with Klaus when they weren't in a relationship? There was nothing wrong with that, it wasn't even that uncommon in mystic wanted to think that sex wasn't a big deal, she wasn't a virgin was it wasn't like it was some profound first act. But with Klaus it still felt like a big deal. She was sure it would happen, she just didn't know when.

…

It was the first week in october and one of the last truly warm days when Klaus came roaring up in front of her house on his bike, parking the door in her driveway when he noticed that neither of her parents cars were there. It was a sunday morning and Caroline hadn't been expecting him, so she'd been rather surprised when she opened her front door to see him standing there. Surprised but not unpleased. She had invited him in, but he had declined her offer, instead extending his hand to her and pulling her down the driveway and towards his bike.

" What are we doing?" Caroline asked, as she accepted the helmet he handed her and securing it on her head.

" I'm going to teach you how to drive." He said simply, starting up the bike. Caroline rolled her eyes.

" I can drive you know. My cars in the shop!" Caroline defended. Klaus shook his head,

" Not this." Klaus said, as he kicked off on the bike and sent them reeling down the street.

…..

" I don't know if i can do this." Caroline said nervously her hands on the handles of the bike. Klaus smirked at her,

" Yes you can, i mean technically you should have a permit and a qualified teacher with at least five years experience but that's beside the point. You know all the steps. Now show me where the throttle is." Caroline obliged, and Klaus nodded.

" Good, and the brakes? Good. Alright i think you're ready." He said, amused as a look of horror came across her face.

" Klaus i really don't think" But he cut her off as he climbed on the back of the bike behind her, placing his hands over hers on the controls.

" It'll be fine, i'm right here. You trust me, don't you?"

Caroline took a deep breath, nodded, pushed in on the choke and pulled down on the throttle.

…..

" He taught you to drive his motorcycle? Oh my god that is so hot." Katerine said through the phone as Caroline relaxed on her bed. She had called her friend after Klaus had dropped her off from her driving lesson. Although she had been terrified at first by the end of their ride Caroline's heart felt as if it could leap out of her chest with excitement and joy. She called Kat because she was the only one who knew what was really going on with Klaus, and Caroline knew she was good with a secert. Katerine found the whole thing amusing and lived for Caroline's phone calls to fill her in on all the latest developments.

" I know" Caroline said into the phone, her heart still felt like it was floating.

" Ugh i can't believe i let you scoop him out from under me!" Kat complained, a slight whine in her voice.

" What?" Caroline asked in disbelief.

" Don't you remember when he first moved here and i said he was hot? That was basically me calling dibs." She joked. Caroline rolled her eye's even though she knew her friend couldn't see her.

" To be fair you said that about not only him but also all of his brothers, and basically every other semi attractive guy in this school." Kat considered for a moment and then conceded.

" Well you're not wrong there, and i guess he did always only have eyes for you." Kat said, poking fun at her friend.

" Oh shut up." Caroline said, rolling over in her bed and smiling at the ceiling.

…

A few days after the motorcycle lesson was october 9th, the day before her birthday. She had been surprised when she got up for school that morning and discovered a note for her on the kitchen table. Her father wasn't one to text, and the note was addressed to both Caroline and her mother. It stated that Bill had emergent work in Philadelphia to do and that he wouldn't be home until at least the following monday. Caroline had been slightly hurt upon reading the note. She and her father weren't on the best terms but she hadn't imagined he'd skip town the day before her birthday. Caroline ground her teeth, thinking about the work her dad was really doing in pennsylvania.

She went to school that day and tried to act like nothing was wrong. She listened to her friends muse about plans as to what they could do the next day to celebrate Caroline's birthday. Usually she would have lapped this attention up. Caroline loved her birthday, it was the one day a year she could unabashedly have everything be about her. But today felt different. Her friends were throwing out a lot of ideas but none of them seemed very plausible. Her birthday was on a wednesday, and in a small town a week night wasn't exactly the most happening time. Caroline knew they'd probably just end up at the Grill. Matt would sneak them extra appetizers and drinks from the bar and she'd make a big deal as she opened all her gifts, oohing and ahhing at everything they'd got her. It would be boring, and predictable but that was enough.

Her mother had left the house after dinner to attend to a case that she'd been called in about. Liz had kissed her daughter's forehead and promised she would try to be home for breakfast the next day. Caroline gave her mother a sad smile and continued to push her dinner around her plate. She heard her mother's cruiser turn out of the driveway and head down the street and the house was suddenly eerily silent. Caroline moved to the cupboard and loaded her arms up with snacks. She shut herself into her bedroom and turned on her tv at near full volume, She flopped down onto her bed, still in her school clothes, and cracked open a bag of chips. She put on a series of happy light hearted rom coms and relaxed back against her headboard as the sky got slowly darker outside her window. It was just past 11:30 when Caroline's eyes finally felt heavy enough that she may have been ready to try to sleep. She was just working herself to get up off her bed and get ready for bed when a sharp knock sounded against her window pane. She jumped about a foot at the sound, clutching her heart in shock. She turned her head to see Klaus standing at her bedroom window a grin on his face. He began to push up against the glass, opening the window.

" What are you doing?" Caroline asked in disbelief as Klaus began to hoist himself into her room,

" You crawl through this window all the time, I figured it couldn't be that hard." Klaus said, as he finally made his way completely into the room.

" Let me rephrase my question. What are you doing here?" She asked, as Klaus moved towards her.

" It's your birthday." He said simply, pecking her on the cheek before moving to sit down on her bed. Caroline sat down beside him, her eyes narrowed.

" Not until tomorrow" She defended, as Klaus continued to smirk at her.

" In twenty minutes." Klaus stated, gesturing to the clock on her nightstand. Caroline rolled her eyes.

" Maybe i'm a little over eager." Klaus joked.

" I couldn't wait, I'm a great lover of birthdays." He said, and pulled a slightly crumpled envelope from his back pocket. Caroline narrowed her eyes at him as she took the envelope from his and slowly tore open the flap. Her eyes widened and her jaw went slack

" You didn't" She said still shocked, looking down on the paper in her hands.

" How did you get these?They must have been impossible to find!" She said, as she closely examined the tickets in her hands. They were for one of her favourite bands shows in Baltimore. The tickets had been sold out for months and every scalper ticket Caroline had seen online had been snatched up in seconds.

" Maybe i know a guy" Klaus said coyly, pretending to be mysterious.

" Thank you" Caroline said genuinely, leaning forward to wrap her arms around his neck in a hug. Klaus wrapped his arms around her in return , one hand resting in her hair while the other sat on her lower back. She loosened her grip on him slightly and pulled back enough that she could connect their lips. The kiss started off slow, and sweet, the kind of kiss that ended off a romantic movie. It progressed from there, as her hands moved under his shirt and he leaned her back so she was laying flat on her bed, him hovering over her. He kicked off his shoes as she lifted her own shirt over her head, and then moved to pull off his. Klaus was skilled with a bra clasp, and Caroline's hands worked at the buckle of his belt. They moved together, their actions matched and synced. Caroline gasped at the feel of him, her nails digging into the skin of his back.

" Happy birthday" he whispered against her skin as the clock on the table stroked into a new day.


	11. Radiance

Eighteen Chapter 11: Radiance

Caroline was just waking up when her mother's car pulled into the driveway. Her head was resting against Klaus bare chest, her arm draped across his stomach. He had his arm around her back and was tracing a slow circles into her skin. As she stirred Caroline glanced up at Klaus, to see that he was already smiling down at her.

" Happy birthday" Klaus said, moving a piece of hair out of her face as she yawned.

" You've already said that before." She pointed out, letting her head fall against his chest again.

" Funnily enough, it'll actually be your birthday all day." Caroline rolled her eyes and shook her head slightly. Just then Caroline heard the front door crack open and her mother step into the house.

" Shit." Caroline hissed, sitting up bolt straight in bed and pulling her bed covers up around her.

" You need to leave." Caroline said, scrambling to pick up a shirt off the floor and pull it over her head.

" Or hide. Just-" Caroline pushed him off the bed on the side furthest from the door and threw a blanket over him. She climbed back into her bed and tried to look as if she was still asleep, just as her mother knocked on her door and turned the knob.

" Happy birthday baby." Liz said softly, moving to sit on her daughter's bed, as Caroline sat up and stretched, giving her mother a sleepy smile.

" I got you breakfast from that little place you like over on first." Liz offered, handing her daughter a to go cup of coffee and began to reach over to place a grease spotted paper bag on Caroline's night stade. Caroline was suddenly extremely aware of the empty condom wrapper casually thrown to the back of her bedside table. If Liz saw that it would be a short jump to finding the mostly naked boy hiding under her bed. Thankfully liz put down the bag with no notice of the wrapper and turned back to face her daughter with a smile.

" Are you going out with your friends tonight?" Liz asked, watching as her daughter tried to smooth out her messy bed head. Caroline nodded, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

" Well i've got work the rest of the day, but maybe tomorrow we can go to Richmond after school, we can shop, and i'll let you pick the restaurant, even if it's raw fish" Liz finished, standing up and pecking her daughter on the forehead. Caroline waited until she heard the front door close and her mother's car start in the driveway.

" You're all clear." Caroline said, bouncing a bit on her bed to signal that Klaus was safe to come out.

Klaus pushed against the hardwood floor and wriggled out from under the bed.

" Jesus do you ever dust under there?" Klaus asked climbing back onto the bed and under the covers. Caroline shrugged, taking a large drink of her coffee before offering the cup to Klaus. He took the cup from her and took a sip before his face turned sour.

" How do you drink this?" Referring to the overly sweet drink.

" Excuse me, it's my birthday and i can drink a vanilla white chocolate mocha with java chips and sprinkles if i want to." She defended, even though she knew she probably wouldn't be able to finish the drink in its entirety without her teeth starting to ache. She usually kept her coffee order to a much simpler standard, but her mother always went over the top on her birthday. Klaus moved to the side of the bed and began pulling on his clothes.

" So let me guess, your friends will be taking you to the Grill tonight in customary mystic fall fashion. Store bought cake, presents, the works." He asked, and she nodded.

" It will be pretty hard to top your gift though." Caroline said crossing her legs in bed and watching as Klaus buckled his jeans. Klaus smirked,

" I know, i'm a pretty good lay" Klaus joked. Caroline scoffed at him and chucked one of the pillows from her bed at him.

" I was talking about the tickets, asshole." She said, trying not to laugh as he grinned at her.

" That's my shirt you know." Klaus said, gesturing to the shirt she'd picked up on the floor and pulled on before her mother came in.

Caroline sat up on her knees and played with the hem of the shirt, not breaking eye contact with me.

" Then i guess you'll just have to come get it."

…..

Just over an hour later Caroline was crawling into the back of the Gilbert SUV, to a chorus of happy birthdays. She thanked her friends as Elena passed her a chocolate chip muffin and another coffee. Caroline took it gratefully, knowing that the amount of sugar and caffeine she had consumed in the past hour would probably lead her to crashing later. Caroline was walking into the school with the Gilberts and Elena when Kat caught hold of her hand.

" I forgot my phone in the car, Care will you come back and get it with me?" Caroline shrugged and turned back to the car with her friends.

" We'll catch up with you in a minute" Kat called to her sister and Bonnie.

" You had sex" Katerine accused, smirking at her friend as she linked their arms together as they walked.

" What?" Caroline asked, trying to act shocked and confused.

" Don't play with me Care. I can see it all over your face. You're glowing, radiant even." Kat said, nudging her friend with her elbow as they walked.

" I know, because it's basically how i look all the time." Kat joked, flipping her hair over her shoulder.

" Now spill." Caroline rolled her eyes and sighed but answered her friend.

" I don't know. He just showed up at my window last night with my birthday present and it just… happened." Caroline said simply, trying not to blush. Kat rolled her eyes.

" Details please! Was he good? He looks like he would be good." Caroline shoved against her friend.

" I'm going to take that as a yes." Kat joked, as they reached the car and pulled open the driver's door.

Caroline leaned against the car and smiled. Kat pulled back out of the car and stared at her friend.

" Oh my god, you are smitten." Kat said, gaping at her friend. Caroline's smile dropped from her face as she tried to keep her composure.

"What are you talking about?" Caroline asked, as Kat rolled her eyes at her.

" I'm talking about you, and how you're falling head over freakin heels." Kat accused, crossing her arms and watching her friend amused.

" You are delusional." Caroline said, turning away from her friend.

" No really. I thought this whole thing was just you fooling around to shed your good girl image, but you really like him. Is he that good in bed that he's got you thinking about going to prom together and holding hands in the hallway?" Kat pressed, wrapping her arm around her friend as they walked back the school together. Caroline rolled her eyes again as they walked back to meet their friends.

" and i'll just say, i already like him better than Tyler. Plus he has way better hair" caroline snorted with laughter as they pushed open the door to the school.

…...

Several people wished Caroline a happy birthday as she passed her in the hall, and when she reached her locker she saw that her friends had decorated her locker the way they always did on each other's birthdays. She was stashing her books in her locker and listened as her friends explained their plans for the night. Her friends asked if it was okay if they got ready at Caroline's house since her parents wouldn't be home. She nodded and allowed Elena to link her arm through hers and saunter off to class together.

…

They'd canceled cheer practice for that day, so after school Caroline's friends came crashing through the front door of her house, tossing their school bags onto the couch. While her friends milled in the kitchen, Caroline snuck back to her room, under the presidence of storing her school bag. She chucked her bag onto the chair in the corner, before heading over to her bedside table, snatching up the condom wrapper and tucking it into her jean pocket. She didn't need one of her friends finding it and asking questions. Caroline turned to head back into the main part of the house to find her friends, but found her way blocked by Katherine who was leaning against her door frame, a knowing smirk on her face.

" Shut up." Caroline said, moving to push past her friend.

" I didn't say anything." Kat defended, still smirking. As Caroline moved past her, Kat smacked her friends ass

" at a girl" Kat cawed as she followed her friend back into the kitchen.

Caroline sat at the kitchen island and pulled her laptop towards her. She opened up the internet and logged on to her email, knowing it was her father's main use of communication, and sure enough there was an email from her father that had been delivered a few hours previous.

 _Carebear,_

 _Hope you're having a good birthday. See you in a few days. Will talk then._

 _Love, Dad_

Caroline snapped shut her computer and pushed it away. She didn't know what she had expected , but it hadn't been that.

…

Caroline, against her better judgment, let Katerine do her makeup before they left the house for dinner that night.

" Don't you think the eye make up is a little heavy for dinner Kat?" Caroline asked as she studied her reflection in the mirror. Katherine rolled her eyes and continued to apply bronzer to her friends face.

" But in all seriousness, i'm about to drop dead from hunger, so can we please eat soon?" Caroline pressed. It was just past 8 already and they hadn't left yet for dinner. Caroline's friends had said that they couldn't get a Grill reservation until 8:30, which had seemed fishy. It was a wednesday at the Grill, was it really so busy that they couldn't get a table for four before 9 o'clock? Caroline tried to think nothing of it, she was just happy to finally be leaving for dinner. She'd been starving since before 7 o'clock but she had stopped herself from eating much more than a handful of almonds, not wanting to ruin her appetite for dinner.

Caroline sat shot gun on the way to the Grill, Elena and Bonnie in the back and Kat behind the wheel. They drove through Caroline's neighbourhood but when they reached the main road Kat took a left rather than heading right towards town.

"Kat?" Caroline asked questioningly, looking over her shoulder and noticing her other friends smirking at her.

" Don't stress Care!" Kat said a grin on her face.

" We're heading to exactly where we need to be." Kat said, amused.

….

Caroline became slightly concerned when they turned down a bumpy dirt road, the trees on the drive over grown as the branches slapped against the side of the car.

" No but really, where are we going?" Caroline pressed, twisting to look at each of her friends in turn.

" Calm down, we're here." Kat said, as she pulled the car off the road, turning into an open field. Caroline turned back around in her seat to face forward and was shocked in what she saw. There was a bonfire roaring in the center of the field and it seemed like the majority of the senior and junior class had turned up.

They climbed out of the car, and Kat moved to stand in front of Caroline, positioning a plastic tiara on her friends head, while Elena wrapped a bright pink feather boa around the birthday girl's neck.

" Everyone here is braving a school day hangover just to celebrate your birthday." Bonnie stated, linking her arm through Elena's while Elena and Kat both linked their arms through either of Caroline's.

" Lots of people brought gifts, and Mason and Tyler generously provided the kegs. We're charging per cup,and you get to keep all the cash." Kat said and they moved towards the party and people began to shout about their arrival. Kat leaned in close and whispered into Caroline's ear.

" I had the foresight to make sure your special friend got an invitation. You can thank me later." Kat said, planting a kiss on her friend's cheek as they walking into the depth of the party.


	12. Rager

Eighteen chapter 12: Rager

Caroline let her friends tow her towards the fire and the bulk of the party. She couldn't believe how many people had turned up on a school night, but then again the students of Mystic falls high school took any opportunity to get smashed, even if they had to suffer through a hangover during first period pre calc. Within the first few seconds someone had shoved a plastic cup full of liquid into Caroline's hands. She downed it without much hesitation, and gratefully accepted the next drink, and the next. Since neither Caroline nor her friends had actually eaten dinner that night it wasn't long before the whole party was fuzzy along the edges. Countless people were coming up to Caroline, hugging her and wishing her a happy birthday, in reality thanking her with fewer words for an excuse to get drunk.

Caroline had her arm draped around Katherine's shoulder, as Kat supported her. They were laughing, trying to keep straight faces for the photo Bonnie was attempting to take. Over Bonnie's shoulder Caroline could see Tyler standing over by the set of kegs. He caught her eye and raised his hand,

" Care!" He shouted and came bounding over in their direction.

Her eyes widened slightly in shock, and Kat could feel her friend stiffen.

" Relax." Kat whispered in her ear,

" He's just being friendly." She reassured, giving caroline's hip a squeeze with the arm wrapped around it. Caroline glanced over and saw Elena standing a few feet away, her arms wrapped around her boyfriend. " be nice" Elena mouthed at her, jerking her head in Tyler's direction.

" Happy Birthday!" Tyler practically shouted as he reached the two friends. Tyler reached out and pulled Caroline into his arms and lifted her off her feet, squeezing her too tightly in a hug. He placed her back on her feet and she stumbled a bit, reaching out to Kat to steady her. She repositioned the plastic birthday crown on her head so it sat straight as she spoke.

"Thanks" Caroline said, leaning her head against Kat's shoulder.

" and thanks for bringing the beer, you and Mase didn't have to do that." She said, plucking feathers from her boa absentmindedly. Ty smiled almost too widely, all his teeth exposed. Before he could say anything else, he was interrupted as a very intoxicated Rebekah Mikaelson came staggering up and wrapped her arms around Caroline's neck, pushing Katherine away.

"Care!" Bekah sang into her ear, swaying back and forth as she hugged her ex team mate. Caroline hadn't spoken much with the younger girl that year as they didn't have cheerleading to socialize at anymore. Still Caroline wrapped her arms around Rebekah in return and the two stood swaying in a hug that would be awkwardly long if they both hadn't been drunk. Rebekah pulled back slightly so she could look caroline in the eye.

" Is there something going on with you and my brother? Because i was over at Niks place the other night and he was like freaking out about what to get this girl for her birthday and i had no idea who he was talking about but now it's your birthday so i was thinking that " Rebekah had a tendency to ramble on, her words slightly slurred as she spoke. Caroline's eyes widened slightly but she tried to maintain her cool, glancing around to see if anyone was listening to their conversation, not that that mattered.

" I mean not that it matters if there is" Rebekah continued,

" He's basically been obsessed with you since we got to town, not obsessed in like a creepy way, but like-" Rebekah seemed to lose her train of thought and let out a sigh. Rebekah smacked at heavily lipsticked kiss on Caroline's cheek,

"Happy Birthday babe." Rebekah said, as she let caroline go and disappeared into the crowd.

Kat reappeared at Caroline's side and bumped against her friend's hip with her own.

"Looks like you've got the family's approval" Kat joked, pouring half of her full cup into Caroline's empty one. Caroline rolled her eyes and took a drink of the new liquid Kat had poured into her cup.

" I think your boys over on the other side of the fire." Kat stated, gesturing with her cup to where Klaus was supposedly standing.

" I would go quick if i was you. I saw Bonnie and Elena head back to the car with get the sparklers, and then they will be on you like white on rice." Kat advised, turning Caroline around and pushing her in the direction that she needed to go. She knew she should pick up her pace if she wanted to beat Elena and Bonnie back to the fire, but in reality she didn't really care. There wasn't much they could say to her today. It was an unspoken rule in their friend group that their birthdays were always a free pass. You could get too drunk, yell cry, and hook up with anyone you wanted to. Hell, on Elena and Katherine's birthday, Kat had kissed, Stefan, Matt, Mason, and 2 sophomores in the span of an hour before downing another four drinks and trying to convince Damon that she was Elena to see if she could get him to kiss her. None of it mattered, because it was her fucking birthday.

Caroline headed off in the direction Kat sent her, waving to those who acknowledge her, and stopping for a few seconds to speak to those who actually said her name. She finally spotted Klaus for herself and headed straight for him. He saw her coming and broke off the conversation he was having, striding out to meet her. Caroline had pulled the feather boa her friends had put on her shoulder off, and placed it around Klaus's neck, pulling him closer to her. His hands slid around her waist as she laced her fingers around the feathers of the boa she had wrapped around him.

" Are you sure you want to do this here?" Klaus asked, his fingers playing with the hem of her shirt.

" With all these people around." He finished, nodding his head towards the crowd around them. Caroline rolled her eyes and moved closer to him.

" I can do whatever i want." She said, looking up at him through her lashes.

" it's my birthday." she whispered with a grin before leaning into his kiss.

…

Caroline woke up the morning after her birthday curled into a ball in katherine's bed, a bucket on the floor beside her she thankfully hadn't had to use in the night. Drinking on an empty stomach hadn't been that wise, and drinking to excess? Well that had just been down right stupid. Kat rolled over in bed beside her.

" What do you think the chances are my mom will let us blow off first period?" Kat asked burying her head into her pillow. Caroline could already hear Miranda Gilbert on her way up the stairs to wake up Bonnie and Elena, and it wouldn't be long before she was in Kats room as well.

" Slim to none." Caroline groaned as she pulled a blanket up over her head.

Within fifteen minutes the four very hung over girls were all crowded around the Gilberts kitchen table, nibbling on the plain toast Miranda had put down in front of them.

Caroline could see Elena and Bonnie giving her a bit of a side eye from the other side of the table and she knew that they were thinking about her hooking up with Klaus the night before. They wouldn't bring it up of course. For all they knew that was the first time since the first week of September that Caroline had even talked to Klaus. That was all they needed to know for now. Caroline wasn't ashamed that she was with Klaus. Not that she was with _with_ him per say. She wasn't ashamed that she was hanging out with him. She wasn't ashamed that she was hooking up with him. She wasn't ashamed that she'd had sex wit him. She just didn't want to hear her friends opinions on it. They were still living in the happy dream world where by the time graduation rolled around, she and tyler would be back together and the whole gang could skip off into the sunset. She'd let them live there a little while longer.

…..

The few weeks leading up to her birthday after Halloween were uneventful. She went to class, she went to yearbook meetings, she hung out with her friends. On the nights her dad was out of town and her mother was working late Klaus would sneak into in room at night through her window. Kat was still the only one of her friends who had any idea what was going on. Kat loved to make sneaky jabs at Caroline whenever they were around their other friends, living to get a reaction or rise out of her friend.

…

Halloween fell on a thursday that year, meaning that the teenagers of the town would have to wait an extra day to throw a worthwhile halloween party. Caroline's bare legs stung against the cold as she hurried down the walkway of her house and down towards the Gilberts waiting SUV. She slide into the back seat, grateful for the warm interior of the car.

" Very creative costume Care" Katerine teased, as Caroline clicked in her seat belt. Caroline's hair was curled and in two tight pony tails, scrunchy and all. She was cheerleader costume she'd ordered off ebay. Caroline rolled her eyes at her friend. She'd pulled out her pom poms from when she was on the JV team and they had invested in the good ones, with the glitter.

" People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones." Caroline joked referring to the fact that Kat was sitting in the driver's seat dressed as a literal cat. Kat shrugged her shoulders. Elena rolled her eyes at the two of them, adjusting the same nurse costume she had worn the previous year.

" Well i think Bonnie's going as a witch for the eleventh year in a row, so we all win in the creativity category over her." Kat joked as she angled the car into a spot in the student lot at the high school. People were milling around between cars, comparing costumes and judging those they didn't like.

Caroline was headed to her first period class, when Klaus fell into step beside her.

" Nice costume." Klaus said, adjusting his backpack straps on his shoulder.

" Yeah can't you tell, I'm Caroline Forbes from 6 months ago." She joked, shaking her pompoms at him as they walked. Klaus snorted.

" What about you? No halloween spirit?" Caroline asked, glancing down at Klaus's plain clothes.

" Oh right." Klaus said, remembering suddenly. He reached into his pocket and shoved a pair of cheap plastic fangs into his mouth.

" Very scary." Caroline said sarcastically, shoving a pompom into his side before entering her classroom.


	13. Residence

Eighteen chapter 13: Residence

The first week of november brought a cold front down on the town of Mystic falls. Girls dug out their favourite sweaters and scarves from the back of their closets, while the boys finally stopped wearing shorts to school. The homecoming dance was scheduled for the end of the month and it seemed to be the only thing that the majority of the student body could talk about. Caroline's friends had already informed her that they'd all be taking a day trip to Richmond to go dress shopping, no if ands or buts. Caroline had bit her tongue and tried to plot a plan to inform her friends that she wasn't exactly sure if she planned on attending. Other members of year book had already signed up to cover the game as well as the could always go and hang out with her friends, but they all had dates, and Caroline didn't exactly feel like third wheeling. Much like prom, everyone had picked their homecoming dates months in advance. Elena was obviously going with her boyfriend Damon, Bonnie was going with Matt as friends, and Kat was going with her flame of the moment, Mason. Caroline had originally been going with Tyler, but that option was out for obvious reasons. Although in the week after Halloween Tyler had been far more civil and friendly. He'd started sitting at their lunch table again, along with Matt, and the Salvatores, they way they all used to during junior year. Caroline hoped things would remain casual and he wouldn't try anything again the way he had at the rally party. It wasn't like the sight of him made her want to vomit anymore. He cheated and that sucked, and he wasn't as good of a person as she once thought, but it wasn't like he was the human embodiment of satan. He was just a stupid teenage tried not to think about what had happened at the rally after party. The way he had grabbed her wrist and squeezed so hard that he left marks. How he had been so angry when she had tried to walk away from him. It was easy to be around him in the group setting, where there was no awkward one on one interactions

. …..

" I didn't even know this part of town existed." Caroline mused as she looked out the window at the passing street signs and run down houses growing further and further apart. It was a few days after halloween, a saturday, and Caroline was sitting in the passenger side of Klaus's car, driving down an unfamiliar road towards Klaus's place. In the two months that the two had been seeing each other, Caroline had still never seen where Klaus had lived. They spent most of their time together, either driving around in his car or on the bike, with the occasional night spent in secret behind the closed door of her bedroom. Caroline knew that Klaus had moved out of his parents house the year before, but no one seemed to know why and she had never asked where he resided now. She also had little idea of how exactly Klaus paid rent, or paid insurance on his motorcycle, or his surely pricy muscle car. Caroline knew that the Mikelsons came from money, but did Klaus have so much access to the funds that he was able to live his life completely separate from his parents?

When Klaus pulled the car down a broken gravel road and turned at a faded wooden sign that read _mystic county mobile residence_. Caroline's forehead crinkled as Klaus pulled the car through the slightly rundown trailer park. Caroline turned to look at Klaus in slight surprise and astonishment as he parked the car in a lean to attached the faded siding of the trailer Caroline assume was his.

" So tell me, how was the transition from a 5000 square foot mannor to a 25 foot trailer?" She asked jokingly and she unbuckled her seat belt.

" Seamlessly."He said with a smirk, exiting the car and walking over to open her door.

" Now you're only the third person i know to have ever seen this place in all its glory, so you should feel very honoured." Klaus said, digging his keys out of his pocket.

" And who else exactly belongs to this exclusive group?" Caroline asked, glancing around and appreciating the tall trees on the far side of the trailer park.

" My mother sent Rebekah and my youngest brother out to scope out the place, make sure she wasn't paying for me to be living in squalor." He said simply, fiddling with the key in the lock.

" and this place passed the test?" Caroline asked, appraising the peeling siding of the trailer. Klaus rolled his eyes and smirked as he finally pulled open the door.

" I sent my siblings back with a false report. My parents think i'm living in one of the studio apartments in that new complex down town. But this place is about a fourth of the rent, and i just pocket the rest of the money that my parents transfer. " He said simply, standing aside to let Caroline enter before him. Caroline stepped into the trailer and was pleasantly surprised at her findings. It didn't smell like mildew as she had expected, and it was clean and well maintained. A double bed was crammed into the corner across from the door, there was a small outdated kitchen along one wall, a small table and two chairs tucked under it, and a couch pressed under a window. Caroline walked down the small aisle of space that separated the kitchen and living area, walking to the end of the trailer to where the small door to the bathroom was situated. Caroline twisted around to face Klaus who was standing by the door, watching her carefully, amused.

" I may be crossing the line with this question," Caroline began, absentmindedly, opening cabinets and pulling open and close drawers, glancing inside as she spoke.

" but why do you not live with your family? I mean if they're still paying for everything, this is obviously some sort of mutual agreement and not just you slipping out the window in the middle of the night." She finished, moving away from the cabinets and flopping down the couch, the springs squeaking under her weight. Klaus moved towards her and sat down on the couch by her side before he spoke.

" Well, lets see. My father is not exactly the warmest person, and though he has six children he's not exactly fond of all of us. Quite often it seemed like he was looking for excuses to be rid of us at every opportunity. My two eldest brothers are away at university so he doesn't have to deal with them anymore, Kol put a toe out of line last year so now he's a boarding school in Vermont, Rebekah's the only girl so she's pretty safe, and Hens the youngest so he's untouchable. I got into an argument with father last year around the same time he sent Kol, and he wanted to ship me off along with him. I reasoned that i was old enough by law to live on my own and that rent would be cheaper than boarding tuition. It works out well really, i have dinner with my mother every few weeks, Rebekah drops by more than i'd like, and i don't really have to see my father at all."

Caroline leaned against his side.

" At least now i know we can bond over our mutual daddy issues." Caroline joked, smiling as she elicited a laugh from him.

…..

The next monday at school Caroline was standing at her locker, reorganizing her books, and listening to Kat, Elena and Bonnie talk excitedly about homecoming.

" Care!" a voice shouted from down the hallway. Her head snapped up at the sound of her name, surprised to see Tyler lopping towards her a bright grin on his face. Caroline mouth dried up slightly, but she forced a smile onto her face.

" Hey" She said casually, turning back to face the inside of her locker as he came to a stop in front of her. Caroline could feel her friends eyes on her as they stood a few feet away watching.

" I was coming to find you. I wanted to talk about homecoming." He said leaning his hand against the locker next to hers. Caroline felt her stomach drop at his words.

" Homecoming?" she asked skeptically.

" I know a lot has happened since last year, and you probably didn't plan on going to the dance with me anymore but i thought that since we're nominated for court as a couple, that you might want to-" Caroline cut him off,.

" wait, nominated for what?" she asked, confused.

" Homecoming court. The ballots just came out, but they picked nominees at the end of last year, and i thought maybe since we're nominated as a couple you'd want to go, with me." He said confidently.

" That is, unless you're going with someone else." He added as an afterthought, but with a tone that said he very much doubted it. Caroline pursed her lips, unsure of what to say, she opened her mouth to answer but no words came to her. Kat stepped in to rescue her.

" You know Ty, were actually all just going together as a group." Katherine said, slipping her arm through Carolines.

" We are?" Bonnie asked confused. Kat shot her a death glare.

" We are." Kat stated, turning back to face Tyler.

" But it's not just us, Matt, Viki, Jer, Anna, Damon, basically everyone. I mean you're welcome to join us, it's a dance everyone's going to be hanging out with everyone anyway. So dates don't really matter." Kat said simply, smiling sweetly at Ty.

" and you're hosting the after party this year, and we're all totally going to come to that." Kat added as the bell for the next class rung.

" See you later ty." Kat said, as she tightened her grip on Caroline and the two walked away from him and towards their next class.

….

" Well i'll definitely vote for you." Klaus said, between laughs. They were sitting in Klaus's car, parked up by the falls. Caroline was laying across the seat with her head in Niks lap as she retold the events of that day and the whole tyler homecoming court ordeal.

" Oh shut up. It's not that funny!" Caroline said, glaring up at him.

" Well miss mystic never got a crown, so this may be your only chance for a tiara. I'd jump on that opportunity if i was you." He joked, still struggling to maintain his laughter. Caroline rolled her eyes.

" I'm glad my problems are so amusing to you." She joked, reaching up and knocking his chin with her hand.

" But if you really want to be a help, you'll show up 45 minutes into the dance with some sort of emergency, so i can get the hell out of stay and dance because that's something i've always kind of wanted to see." Caroline mused. Klaus rolled his eyes and shook his head at her.

" I refuse to step foot into that smelly gym when it's not absolutely necessary, but i would be willing to compromise, in that i will gatecrash the after party, and nod my head casually to the music." Caroline let out a huff of laughter, and smiled up at him once again.

" I'll take it."


	14. Resist

I haven't updated in forever. I suck at consistency. I know where i want this story to go but i'm just having a little trouble getting there. This is my longest chapter so i hope that is some consolation.

Eighteen chapter 14: Resist

Against her better judgement, Caroline was going to homecoming, and since she was now attending the dance she had no valid excuse to skip out on the dress hunting trip to Richmond. She'd sat shotgun in the Gilberts SUV, listening to Bonnie and Elena debate the pros and cons of straps or strapless dresses. Kat drove with her arm draped lazily over the wheel, her over sized darkly tinted sunglasses caught up on top of her head in her dark curls. She kept throwing Caroline knowing looks every time she noticed Cares phone beep or buzz with a new text. When Kat had knowingly inquired who she was texting, seeing as the vast majority of her friends were already in the car, Care had rolled her eyes at her friend and claimed to be communicating with her mother. This exchange meant nothing to Elena or Bonnie, but Kat had to hold herself back from laughing at the blush that spread across Caroline's face. If Caroline had to make a list of reasons it was a good idea to keep Klaus a secret, the fact that it seemed to amuse Kat so much would be number one. Though Caroline wasn't sure how much longer she could keep her and Klaus a secert.

If Bonnie and Elena didn't pick up on Kats not to subtle jokes and jabs then Caroline herself would eventually slip up. It was only a matter of time before one of her friends noticed the messages on her phone or heard gossip from someone who saw them around. In a small town like Mystic falls nothing was kept secret for long.

Caroline already knew her parents had their suspicions. There had been more than one close call, when she and Klaus had accidentally fallen asleep in her room and Liz had arrived home late at night. Liz tending to poke her nose into her daughter's room whenever she got off a night shift, just to check in. By the grace of god Caroline woke up to the sound of the front door opening and was able to prevent her mother from walking in on her with a boy in her bed. Her father watched her over dinner every night that he was home with narrowed eyes. When in the past he hadn't paid much attention to her answers to the obligatory parent questions, he now watched her very carefully. He grilled her with questions about that she had gone after school and on the weekends, as if he was waiting for her to slip up in her story and make a mistake. She had a feeling it had something to do with the fact that he'd spotted the faded remnants of a hickey on her neck that she had forgotten to cover before sitting down at the dinner table. She'd worn a scarf to school that day, which hadn't seemed out of place due to the cold weather, but had taken it off after she had arrived home. In other words her father knew she was hooking up with someone, and was waiting for Caroline to finally drop the bomb. But it was kind of fun sometimes to watch her father swirm, his face growing redder with frustration as she played dumb and innocent. Other times it just pissed Caroline off more then ever. Her father had no place butting into her private life, not when she knew what he was hiding.

Caroline tried to push these thoughts out of her mind as she raced down the highway in a car full of her friends. Dress shopping was less of an ordeal then Caroline had originally anticipated. Going clothes shopping with her group of friends usually included at least two fights between Kat and Elena. They had the same skin tone and suited the same colours, so they often gravitated to the same clothes, inevitably leading to a battle of sorts. Bonnie was in decisive and Kat was impatient which often lead to more tension, but the trip to Richmond was smooth sailing and the four girls finished their day of shopping happy and satisfied by the dresses they had chosen. Caroline and her friends spent the majority of the drive back to mystic falls discussing the particulars of the homecoming dance, which was fast approaching. The main topic of conversation was the topic of dates. Kat had told Tyler that they were all going as a group, which wasn't quite the whole truth. Yes they would all be hanging out at the dance, but Damon, Mason, and Matt ( Elena , Kat, and Bonnies dates perspectively, although Matt and Bonnie were going as friends) were all getting the correct colour ties to match their dates dresses. Would that make Tyler suspicious? Kat didn't seem to think so. Pointing to the fact that Tyler couldn't tie his own shoes half the time. Bonnie and Elena attempted to reason that it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world if Tyler went to homecoming as her date, but Caroline waved them off with a sigh and a roll of the eye.

….

" Have you been practicing your winning wave?" Klaus asked, smirking. It was the night of the homecoming dance and Caroline was getting ready in her room as Klaus laid flat on his back on her bed. Caroline rolled her eyes at him as she shimmied her dress up her body.

" No, because i don't need to." She said, struggling to reach back and pull up the zipper on the back of her dress. The springs on her bed squeaked as Klaus sat up and moved off the mattress and towards her.

" Of course, how could i forget. Miss Mystic falls has plenty of experience with a wave and a winning smile." he said as he took the zipper from her hands and moved it the rest of the way up her back. Caroline rolled her eyes again, turning around and pushing back against Klaus's chest.

" I don't need to know how to wave, because i'm not going to win." Caroline said matter of factly as she twisted back around to appraise her appearance in the mirror. Klaus collapsed down on her bed again with a huff.

" Oh ye of little faith." Klaus joked causing Caroline to roll her eyes for what seemed like the millionth time. She leaned in close to the mirror as the applied her lipstick and then began to speak.

" So you're hanging out with me before the dance, and were meeting at the after party, so i was thinking maybe we could just cut out the middle man and you could just come to the dance. We can car pool. Be green, and earth friendly." She prompted, turning around and smiling at him. It was Klaus's turn to roll his eyes.

" I don't think your date would much approve of that." Klaus joked, tossing a pillow in the air and catching it over and over again.

Caroline scowled at him and narrowed her eyes.

" Call him my date again and see what happens." She threatened, although the statement was made slightly less effective by the smile that was creeping onto her face.

…

Just over an hour later Caroline was climbing out of the gilberts SUV and teetering on her heels in the Mystic Falls high school parking lot . She felt slightly unsteady on her feet as she and her friends had been doing shots at the he Gilbert's house and on the way to the dance while kat and elena's dad pretended to turn a blind eye from the front drivers seat. Kat loops her arm through Carolines and together, along with their two other friends they made their way over to the dances entrance.

The gym was strung up with lights and balloons in gold and silver. Although there was still the slight smell of gym mats and boys body spray the room all together looked pretty good. Caroline had been on the homecoming committee the previous year and noted how many of her ideas had been recycled into this years dance as well. Despite her lack of caring towards the committee's going on without her, she still felt a sting of pride that she could still see her mark on the school, even if she didn't put up the string lights herself.

Caroline's ears were just adjusting the the volume of the music in the gym when she spotted Tyler bounding towards their group in the crowd. Caroline braced herself and put on a tight smile, trying to appear pleasant while digging her nails into her palm. Tyler greeted the group, his eyes already glassy from drinking. He wrapped an arm around Caroline's shoulder and squeezed as a way of greeting, his fingers pressing hard into her skin. Caroline glanced at Kat, who took her look and extended her hand out to her friend, which Caroline took gladly.

" Let's go dance." Kat half shouted, pulling Caroline out of Tyler's grasp and on to the dance floor. After a few songs, they left the floor and rejoined the group who had migrated over to the punch table. Tyler offered them both glasses when they came to a stop among their friends.

" Its best to drink it fast." Bonnie advised as she watched with an amused expression as her friends brought the cups to their lips. Caroline was tempted to plug her nose as she drank from the cup which tasted more like medicine then punch.

" Ugh what is that?" Kat asked in disgust, tho she reached forward for another glass.

" Some junior was in charge of spiking the bowl this year." Tyler shrugged, replacing Caroline's empty glass with a full one. Caroline wrinkled her nose and tried with no proval to push the drink back into tyler's hand.

"Drink up care bear, no need to kill the party." Tyler joked, clinking their glasses together and watching as she hesitantly brought the glass to her lips again.

…

Caroline wasn't sure how many glasses of spiked punch she had consumed by the time that homecoming court was announced. It had seemed that every time her glass was empty it was immediately replaced with another, and she definitely wasn't the one filling it. She had kat had given in and plugged their noses while drinking from their cups, ignoring the weird looks they were getting from teachers.

Caroline really thought it was the booze filled cup talking when she heard her name announced as homecoming queen. She had been sure that Elena had it all tied up, and was still in a state of shock when Kat steered her towards the stage and pushed her up the stairs. She adjusted the rhinestone and plastic crown on her head, and tried not to laugh at the thought of what Klaus would say later when he found out he had been right. Tyler stood smugly on the stage with the ugly velvet crown on his own head and pulled Caroline close so they could pose for photos.

After court was announced the dance steadily emptied, most students making their way towards the lockwood estate and the after party. Caroline felt slightly dizzy as she climbed the stairs up to the house, leaning on Kat for support who was just as unsteady on her feet as Care. The house seemed twice as packed as it had been at the party at the beginning of the school year and it didn't help that all the girls were still stuck in their short poofy dresses and sky high heels.

The room spun slightly as Caroline leaned against the kitchen counter, trying to regain some of her composure. When she closed her eyes the spinning didn't stop, and she felt herself feel as if she was about to tip over.

" Woah there." Someone said close to her ear, reaching out to steady her, their fingers wrapped around her arm. Caroline squeezed her eyes shut as she was steadied on her feet. When she opened her eyes again she saw that it was tyler who still had his hand wrapped around her upper arm, tho she was back on her full feet.

" You doing alright?" He asked, grinning, a hint of a laugh in his voice.

"Hmm" she said in response, bringing her hand up to her face.

" I'm just dizzy, and it's...it's loud." She said simply, hoping her words weren't slurred. She didn't understand why she was this drunk. She had had a shot in the car on the way there, maybe three or four glasses of punch at the dance, and she had been nursing the same glass since she had arrived at the Lockwood's house.

" Do you want to sit down?" He asked as she closed her eyes again, hoping the spinning would stop.

" I can try and find somewhere quiet. Or quieter at least." He offered, as she nodded as way of accepting his offer. She needed to pull herself together a bit. It would be just what she needed if she completely lossed it before Klaus even got there. She just needed to sit. Maybe drink some water and sort her shit out for a second. She was suddenly very grateful for Tylers friendship. She was sorry she had doubted him before, now that he was taking care of her.

Caroline didn't pay attention to where Tyler was leading her, as the party passed around them in a blur. She barely registered that she was climbing up stairs until they ran out. Tyler pulled open the door to his bedroom and lead her inside, guiding her to sit on the bed. Caroline sat on the side of his bed and leaned forward placing her head between her knees and letting out a slight groan. She didn't notice that Tyler had taken a seat beside her on the bed, until she felt his hand begin to rub circles on her back. She froze unsure what to say or do next. She sat up slowly, fighting the urge to be sick.

" Ty-" she began her voice groggy, but in that moment he had leaned towards her and his lips were forcing their way onto her own. He leaned over and pressed his body against hers, pushing her back against the bed. She pulled her face away from his forceful lips with a gasp and tried to push against his shoulders with her hands as she spoke.

" Ty, don't, what are you-" but he didn't seem hearing her words. Pressing himself harder against her, his hands roaming her body and his mouth kissed her cheek and neck, no longer able to reach her mouth with her face turned away from him.

"Stop." She said, trying to make her voice sound forceful and not fearful. She tried to push him off her but he was much heavier than she was and stronger. She crawled at his shoulders and neck, feeling as she broke the skin, but either he didn't notice or didn't care.

" Come on. It's just me care." He said as if that would reassure her. He had gotten ahold of her wrists and held them tight causing pain to blare through her arms. Caroline wasn't breathing. The room was spinning and her thoughts were foggy. What could she do? She had asked him to stop and he wouldn't listen. She could scream, but who would hear her over the music and party below? She felt tears sting her eyes. She had to get out of there. There was only one thing she could think to do. She pressed her head as far back into the mattress as it would go, realizing in that moment that she was still wearing the stupid fucking homecoming queen crown, and then flung her head forward, crashing her skull into Tyler's. Pain blares through her head and she saw spots for a moment, but she had been prepared for the impact, and he had not. He had gasped and loosened his grip on her, recoiling in pain. That was all she needed.

She pushed her way out from under him and collapsed onto the floor beside his bed. She was up in an instant, stumbling out of the room and towards the hall and stairs. One of her shoes came off as she went and she kicked off the other, this was nothing like cinderella. Her heart pounded and her legs shook and she ran down the stairs, pushing back people on the way to the front door. She needed to get out of there. She needed air. Tearing were running down her face, and her breathing was shallow and ragged as she went. She burst through the front door and left it open as she moved out onto the porch and towards the lawn. There were people hanging out on the porch, and the lawn, and she got many strange or concerned looks as she made her way down the steps.

" I told you you'd win." Came a familiar voice from somewhere in front of her. Caroline looked up to see Klaus walking up the front walk towards the house. The grin on his face fell away when he really got a look at her, her missing shoes, and tear stained face, the large bump growing on her forehead. She couldn't catch her breath as she cried, and when he reached her he had to wrap his hands around her arms to keep her steady.

"Whats wrong? What hap-" but he didn't need to finish his sentence. Tyler had appeared on the porch behind them, looking dazed, slightly confused, but angry all the same. Klaus looked between Caroline and Tyler and in an instant saw a picture of the events that may of transpired between the two of them. He wasn't sure exactly what had happened but his blood boiled in his veins at the very thought.

His instincts took over him, and in a second he had moved past Caroline and was moving towards the porch at almost a run, until his fist came into contact with Tyler's jaw.


	15. Run

Eighteen Chapter 15 : Run

Caroline's vision tunneled as she watched in slight horror as Tyler crumpled into a heap on the porch as Klaus's fists connected with his face again and again until a few guys finally pulled him off of the party host.

Caroline's couldn't hear anything but a loud ringing in her ears. She saw people's mouths moving, exclaiming in shock and awe, but no sound reached her. She felt bile rise in her throat and she tried to push it back. She couldn't be here right now. She couldn't deal with his. There were too many people, more and more were pouring out of the party to check out the remains of the fight that had broken out on the porch.

Caroline turned on her heel away from the house and walked down the lawn and towards the sidewalk. She didn't care that she didn't have shoes on and that her feet were being rubbed raw by the pavement as she walked along the sidewalk away from the party. She watched her bare feet as she walked trying to keep herself steady. She felt her phone beep and buzz in her pocket but she ignored it. She couldn't talk to anyone right now. She couldn't bare to think of anyone looking at her, asking what was wrong? What had happened? What could they do? Nothing. There was nothing anyone could do.

Caroline made it a few blocks away from the party before she had to stop. She crouched over in the grass of some innocent and unsuspecting neighbour and threw up the contents of her stomach on the lawn in front on the house. The taste of medicine and bile filled her mouth again and for a second she was sure she was going to pass out right there in some poor old ladies grass.

She sat on her knees and bent her face back down into her thighs, trying to take deep breathes and pull herself together.

" You're fine" she whispered to herself.

" Nothing happened. You're fine." she repeated, hoping that if she said it out loud enough times it would feel true. She had gotten out of there. She hadn't let it go any further. She was lucky that it hadn't been worse. But still her stomach twisted at the thought of it, and her heart hadn't stopped pounding in her chest. Her head ached and she knew that there was a large bump growing there. Maybe she should go to the hospital? She could have a concussion. But the hospital meant doctors and doctors lead to questions and phone calls and police. Police lead to her mother, and she couldn't bare to think of that right now.

All she wanted to do was go to bed and pretend the night hadn't happened at all. She wanted to pretend that less than an hour before the first and only boy who had ever told her he loved her hadn't pinned her to his bed and not listened when she told him to stop. She didn't want to think about how the hands that used to hold her own and brush loose hair out of her face had just clamped down around her wrists and held them so hard that she was sure there were bruises blossoming there.

Caroline wasn't sure how long she sat in the grass, or how long it took her to get home, but eventually she found herself climbing up the front steps to her house. The lights were on in the living room and she wished she wasn't so out of it that climbing through her window wasn't an option. She squeezed her eyes shut as she pushed open the door saying a silent prayer that her parents would be asleep and not waiting up for her. She heard her father clear his throat the second she walked through the door and she knew she had no such luck. She knew he would be angry. That seemed to be his only emotion around her these days, but she was in no mood to gout him on. She just wanted to sleep.

Her father's eyes were fire as he stood up from the couch and began in on his furious lecture. His voice was loud and bombing and her head throbbed with his every word. Could he not see that she was falling apart on the inside? Could he not tell that her face was stained with tears? Or that her head and wrists were swollen? Was he that blind? Or did he just not care?

His words cut into her like knives, each one stinging as he spoke them. What was she thinking? How could she be so irresponsible? What if a neighbour saw her stumbling home in the middle of the night like a drunk? How would it look if one of her mother's co workers brought her in for underage drinking and public intoxication? How could she be so stupid? People would think less of her. Think she was no good. Whisper behind her back. Ruin her reputation even more than she already had. She had no right to- but Caroline cut off at that.

" Don't talk to me about right and wrong." She hissed, her voice less than a whisper. Her father narrowed his eyes at his daughter.

" What are you-"

"You think that i don't know." she began, looking up from her feet to meet her father's gaze.

" that i don't know what your business trips are really about. About the happy little life you live in Philadelphia. How you make my own mother lie at me to cover your ass. How you've been fucking the account-" the end of her word was lost as her father struck her with his hand across her face. Caroline took a few steps back in shock. Her mind clear and steady for the first time in hours. Bill looked in shock himself, unsure how it had come to this.

"Caroline-" He began, but she had already spun around and headed towards her room. She shut the door tightly behind her and used what little strength she had left to push her dresser in front of her bedroom door to insure that her father wouldn't enter. She let out a full breath for the first time since leaving the lockwood house.

She didn't know what to do, but she needed to get out of there. She couldn't be in this house anymore. As much as she wanted to lay down on her bed and sleep she needed to leave. It wouldn't be right. She couldn't lay down to sleep like any other night. Like nothing had happened. Like everything was the same. Caroline tore the stupid tiarra off her head and threw it at the wall watching in slight satisfaction as it snapped. She tore off her dress and threw it in a pile in the corner of her room. She pulled on sweatpants and a shirt. She stuffed clothes and other items into a duffel bag she kept in the back of her closet. She didn't know where she was going. Where she would sleep. She had an emergency key to the Gilbert house. How would they feel when they woke up in the morning and found her crashed out on their couch. But no. She couldn't face her friends right now. They had questions she wasn't ready to answer. Maybe she'd just walk around the neighbourhood she felt fully sober again. Then her head would be clear enough to know what to do next. Her duffel bag was full when she pulled open her bedroom window and tossed it out onto the grass. She climbed out after it and stumbled out of her house. She picked up her bag and turned towards the road. She was watching her feet and walked straight into the chest of another person.

Caroline almost screamed in shock and fear but bite back the noise when she realized who it was. She felt Klaus's arms wrap protectively around her and she let herself for a moment fall apart. She held fistfulls of the side of his shirts in her hands and pressed her cheek against his shoulder, her chest heaving as each breath came ragged and her eye filled with tears again. Klaus was whispering into her hair. Trying to comfort her, although he was unsure of what had happened and had no idea what to say.

…..

Caroline spoke calmly and quietly, curled up in Klaus's car as he drove. Her words were just above a whisper as she told him all she could remember of the night. Her voice shook slightly when she told him about Tyler and could barely speak about her father at all. Through all his anger, Caroline could see a slight wave of relief wash over Klaus which was almost instantly replaced with grief and anger again.

She knew he was grateful to know what Tyler had done without having to ask. She knew he was relieved to hear that the story had a better ending than what it could have been. He was furious at what Tyler was done, what he was grateful that she had gotten away before it had gone any further.

When she was done her story they drove in silence for a few minutes before Klaus spoke.

" I'm sorry." He said quietly. Caroline raised her head slightly to look at him, confused.

" I could have been there earlier. I could have just gone to the stupid dance and" Caroline moved over on the seat closer to him, leaning her head onto his shoulder.

" Shhh." She said quietly.

" It's not your fault."

…...


	16. Real

Eighteen Chapter 16 : Real

When Caroline woke up the next day she wasn't sure of her surroundings. The first moments after waking she didn't recall the events of the previous night, and was therefore confused to to be waking up in an unfamiliar bed that didn't belong to her. As she turned over in bed her head felt as if it was about to split open in pain, and the night before came rushing back to her. She must be at Klaus's place, although she didn't remember much after climbing into his car the previous night. She didn't remember much at all. All the details were fuzzy, but the big stuff, the stuff she would rather forget was present and accounted for. She winced at the pain and the memories that flooded her system. She let out an audible groan as she shifted and attempted to sit up in bed.

" God, i feel like i've been hit by a bus." Caroline said, her voice scratchy and hoarse. She leaned back on her elbows and rubbed at her eye with one of her knuckles. Klaus had been sitting across the trailer on the couch for most of the morning but got to his feet when he noticed that Caroline was awake.

" Water?" He asked, already pulling a bottle out of the fridge and making his way over to the bed.

"Please." Caroline answered, reaching out her hand to accept the drink.

" Do you have any advil?" She asked as she struggled to unscrew the cap on the water bottle. Klaus took a seat on the side of the bed and watched her carefully.

" No can do. You're not due to have more for another few hours." He said, shrugging his shoulders. Caroline narrowed her eyes at him, confused as she didn't remember being awake let alone taking any pain medication. Klaus noticed her confusion and went on.

" Seeing as you flat out refused to let me take you to a hospital last night, i've been treating what i suspect is a concussion with advice from an online wiki how page. Which has involved waking you up every two hours and advil every six." Klaus watched her carefully as she continued to drink the water in her hand.

" I'm not surprised you don't remember waking up. I only ever kept you long enough to make sure you weren't bleeding internally, tho i would still feel better if you'd let me take you to a doctor." Caroline winced slightly as she sat up straighter.

" No doctors, no hospitals, no nothing. I was just drunk. We don't have to make a big deal out of it." Caroline said, trying to force a smile. Klaus gave her a concerned look before speaking quietly.

" Are we going to talk about what happened last night?" He asked, looking at her tho she wouldn't meet her gaze. Caroline bite the inside of her cheek and looked down at her folded hands.

" I thought we already did that." Caroline said quietly a sad half smile on her face.

" I don't really have anything else to say." She said simply, shrugging her shoulders slightly and wincing again as she leaned back against the pillows of the bed. Klaus gave her another concerned look and looked as if he was about to say something, but Caroline cut him off.

" I know what you're going to say, but telling anybody else about what happened last night, any of it, really isn't going to help. It would just make things worse." Klaus gave her a doubtful look and was about to respond when Caroline spoke again.

" Telling my mother would mean telling the police. They're one and the same, and she would just lock me up at home for my own safe keeping. I don't want to drag this on forever. Everything that happened with Tyler-" his name tasted sour in her mouth,

" i want to put behind me, and not think about. Everyone who was at that party, everyone who saw what happened outside after, has some idea of what happened. People will make assumptions and that will follow him. That can be his punishment, and my parents… my dad. I just.. I need some space. I need to figure out what to do next, and that's not me forcing my presence on you. I don't have to stay here, the Gilberts will take me in, i just-" Klaus had brought his hand up to her face, his thumb rubbing along her cheek.

" You don't have to leave. You can stay here… if you want." He said quietly as her gaze fell on his hand, his knuckles bloodied and cut up from the previous nights fight. He noticed her staring at began to stand up from the bed.

" Back to sleep." He ordered, playfully. Walking over to tighten the curtain and blackout extra light.

" Best treatment for a concussion… and a hangover" he added as he took his seat on the couch again.

Caroline's eyes did feel heavy, and she turned over in the bed pulling the blanket up and over her shoulders again. She was just about to drift off to sleep again when she realized that Klaus must of been awake watching out for her all night.

….

It was well past 4 pm by the time that Caroline was fully awake again. Klaus was showering in the cramped little bathroom at the back of the trailer. Caroline sat up in bed slowly and retrieved her bag from the foot of the bed, digging around in it until she found her phone at the bottom. She pressed the power button and winced slightly at the bright light of the phone's screen. Her screen was crowded with messages from her friends, mainly kat. The ones from Elena and Bonnie were clearly from the night before, after she had vanished from the party.

 **Kat: Holy shit. Your boyfriend just knocked lockwoods lights out. Wtf happened?** _12:07am_

 **Kat: Care?** _12:09 am_

 **Bonnie: Where are you?** _12:09 am_

 **Elena: Did you leave already?** _12:22 am_

 **Elena: Do you need a ride home? Leaving in 10.** _1:56 am_

 **Kat: You better not be dead in a ditch somewhere.** _2:03am_

 **Kat: Worst headache ever. Rumor has it the punch spiked with cough syrup?! Will never look at nightquil the same.** _9:06 am_

 **Elena: Never drinking again. :/** _10:19 am_

 **Bonnie: Did i leave my bracelet in your bag?** _11:43 am_

 **Kat: Are you alive?** _12:39 pm_

 **Kat: What the fuck happened with ty last night?** _1:12 pm_

 **Kat: Should i be worried?** 1:56pm

 **Kat: How's your secret lovers hand? He really did a number on lockwood's face.** _2:29pm_

 **Kat: If you don't answer me within the next hour, i'm coming over. Don't make me leave bed today.** _3:36pm_

Caroline sighed audibly, unsure of what to say to any of her friends. She settled on only answering Kat, who would no doubt show up at her parents house if Caroline didn't respond soon.

 **Caroline: I'm fine. Will tell you later.**

After spending the text Caroline powered down her phone and threw it aside, not wanting to think about it anymore then she already had to.

….

Sometime later Caroline was standing in the tiny bathroom, the shower running. She was watching herself in the mirror, examining the dark circle under her eyes and the bruise blooming over her brow bone, her forehead and down her nose. There were bruises around her wrists as well from where they had been squeezed too tightly the night before. Caroline climbed into the shower and turned the knobs until the water spurting out of the shower head was scolding. She scrubbed at her skin, the water burning her skin slightly as she rubbed it raw. By the time she climbed out of the tiny shower her skin was so red that Caroline might have mistaken herself as a lobster. She pulled on an oversized t shirt and made her way back out into the main area. She climbed back into the bed and although she had been sleeping almost the entire day she fell almost instantly to sleep.

Sometime later, Caroline felt Klaus climb into bed behind her. His arm wrapped around her waist tightly, and although in that moment, Caroline felt entirely at ease, she still dreaded what the next monday at school would bring.


	17. Really

Eighteen Chapter 17: Really?

Caroline slept for the rest of saturday and well into late sunday morning. She had powered off her phone and hidden it deep in her bag not wanting to think about anyone who may be trying to get into contact with her.

She knew that her father would have already headed back up to Philadelphia by now and highly doubted that he would have informed Liz about what had happened between himself and their daughter on friday night. Caroline doubted her mother even realized that she hadn't been at home the past two nights. The amount Liz worked it could be weeks before she noticed that her daughter wasn't living at home.

Caroline tried to push the idea of her parents out her mind. She didn't know how she planned on handling it anymore. Her father now knew that she knew at least part of his secret, if not the whole truth. Caroline knew she should confront both him and her mother about what they had been keeping from her, but she wasn't ready to deal with that yet. Wasn't ready to have that talk. Wasn't ready for what would happen after.

As for her friends, well she wasn't exactly ready to deal with them either. She had messaged Kat back yesterday but hadn't responded since. She was putting it all off until monday when she would be forced to face them. When she would be forced to face everyone.

For the amount she had been sleeping over the past few days she was still absolutely exhausted. Her head hurt substantially less than the previous day and her hangover induced nausea has disappeared. Still she dreaded the following day, and everyone she would have to face at school.

Klaus could sense her stress as they sat side by side on the bed, the tv angled towards them and playing sitcom reruns as they ate microwaved cups of noodles. He felt her tense beside him as she shifted, her mind on the following day which would arrive in only a few hours. Klaus wanted to talk to her about it but she had made her thoughts on the subject very clear. She didn't want to talk about or think about that night again. If it were up to her they would all act as if it had been wiped clean from existence. He placed his hand over hers and wrapped his thumb around her palm, gently applying pressure. She glanced up at him and smiled, scrunching up her nose playfully before looking back on the screen. Maybe if they pretended everything was fine it eventually would be.

…

The sky was a bleak grey when they got up for school in the morning, moving around the trailer in almost silence, still sleepy and blurry eyed from the night before. Caroline dug hopelessly through the duffel bag she had hurriedly packed before fleeing her house. In her distraught state she had managed to pack what appeared to be every tank top she owned and exactly one even reasonably warm shirt, which, just her luck, was dirty. Klaus dug in his drawer and pulled out from the very back of a bottom drawer a shirt that must have been years old as it would never come close to fitting him now. Caroline gave him a small smile and gratefully accepted the faded grey long sleeve shirt. It fell past the point that a normal shirt would, but not to the point that it looked like she was drowning in material. The edges of the shirt sleeves were frayed and caroline pulled at the loose strings at the cuff, pulling it down over her hands and clenching the fabric in her fists. She was happy to have something that fell past her wrists and covered the bluish, yellow bruises that had formed their in the shape of finger prints. Those were easy to hide, but her face was a different story.

She stood in front of the mirror, gently pressing powder and foundation onto the bruises on her brow bone and nose. She didn't have the extent of her makeup with her and was struggling to make what she had work. Eventually she stepped away from the mirror, knowing there was little else she could do to cover up the marks on her face. The blue, black, and yellow splotches were only slightly covered up by the make up, but it was enough that those passing in the hallway wouldn't immediately spot the bruises.

" Alright let's get this over with." Caroline huffed as she exited the bathroom and headed towards the front door to the trailer where Klaus was waiting.

….

Caroline's hands shook slightly as she held the to go cup of coffee she had just ordered in the drive thru on the way to school. The turn off for the high school was fast approaching and Caroline's nerves were mounting in her chest.

"Remember when he skipped school to go to the beach? We should do that again. Soon. You know like maybe right now." Caroline offered hopefully. Klaus gave her a pointed look and turned purposefully into the student parking lot.

" now you're a stickler for the rules." Caroline muttered under her breath, biting at the inside of her cheek.

" Time to rip off the bandaid love." Klaus said, reaching over to squeeze her knee before turning off the car's ignition. Caroline crossed her arms.

" I could just not get out of the car you know. I could just sit here. For hours. In the cold." Klaus reached over her and pushed open her door. Caroline rolled her eyes and huffed before unclipping her seatbelt and stepping out of the car. They walked through the parking lot and towards the entrance to the school. The pavement was icy from the chilled morning air and Caroline's foot slipped on a patch of ice and she instinctively reached out and grabbed Klaus's arm to steady herself. She caught her balance and before they started towards the school again, her hand fell instinctively into Klaus's. She began to walk forward but Klaus stayed in place. She turned around to look at him, confused. Klaus was looking down at their still intertwined hands before glancing back up at her.

" This isn't something that we've done before… publicly." He said, swinging their hands back and forth. Caroline knew what he was referring to. They rarely even spoke in public, let alone held hands. Caroline let out a huff of breath that she could see in front of her face, and pulled Klaus towards her by his hand.

" oh well, it's just one more thing for people to talk about." she shrugged and tried not to smile as he grinned at her.

…...

Caroline could feel a number of eyes on her as she and Klaus walked through the halls and past their classmates. They were just rounding the corner to the hallway where her locker and her friends were located, when Caroline spotted him. His face was worse for wear then her's, tho she could see the marks on his forehead that she herself had made with her own skull. His eye was black and her lip was split from where Klaus had pounded his fist into Tyler's face. Caroline dug her nails into Klaus's hand on instinct, her heart seizing at the site of the face she was most hoping to avoid. She could feel Klaus tense beside her and begin to move forward as if he wanted strike again.

" Don't" Caroline hissed,bringing up her other hand to his chest as if to push him backward. Just then, Principal Fell rounded the corner.

" Lockwood. Mikaelson. Just the two i was looking to see." The principal gestured for the two boys to follow her towards her office across the school. Klaus let go of Caroline's hand and turned to follow the principal down the hallway, but not before pressing a quick kiss to her forehead. Caroline avoided Tyler's eye as he walked past her towards the towards the direction that Klaus and the principal had headed.

Caroline reached her locker to see Elena and Bonnie staring at her in utter shell shock, and Kat tried to keep her composure tho she was bursting with questions. Caroline tried to be casual as she pulled open her locker and pulled out her books for her first class of the day.

"Did you just-" Elena stammered,

" and did he just-" Caroline closed her locker door, and pulled self consciously at the hem of her shirt.

" i've got to get to class." She said, turning on her heel and heading down the hall, letting out her first full breath of the day.

…

Caroline dodged questions from overly curious classmates all day. People who wanted to know about the after party, Tyler, the fight, Klaus, all of it. Most of the time Caroline just rolled her eyes or turned away, but there was one person whose questions she couldn't hide from.

Caroline had no way around Katherine. Care had a free block before lunch that she usually spent in the library but that day she was ambushed on her way there. Katherine's long painted nails dug into her arm as she drug her friend towards the parking lot.

" Why aren't you in class?" Caroline asked as Kat as they hurried down the hallway.

" Biology is taking a back burner because you have some serious explaining to do.

The second they were outside and reasonably out of earshot Katherine started in on her.

" Alright so what the actual fuck." Kat demanded, crossing her arms and fixing Caroline with a glare.

"Kat-"

" I've been messaging you and calling you for days, and you send me one text and think that that's going to cut it? I've kind of been flipping my shit here, because unlike my bimbo of a sister and our airhead third friend, who still look at tyler and see our friend from the 6th grade, i've been able to look at everything that happened in friday and put two and two together to come up with a really fucked up story. So you need to tell me right now if i need to physically claw his eyes out." Caroline looked at her feet and then sighed.

"Let's sit." Caroline said, pulling kat over to a bench

….

" I'll kill him." Kat said. Having been silent the whole time Caroline re told the tale of everything she could remember happening on friday night.

" Who? Tyler or my dad?" Caroline joked, trying to lighten the situation.

" Both." She said seriously.

" Murder, double homicide. They don't give the death penalty for crimes of passion." Kat said simply as if she had already thought this through. Caroline laughed and leaned her head against Kat's shoulder.

" Have you told your mom?" Kat asked. Caroline raised her head and then shook it.

" No, and i don't plan to." Caroline said, picking at the skin around her finger.

" Care…"

" I'm really done talking about it. I want to let it go." Kat narrowed her eyes at her friend and then sighed.

" Whatever. I'm going to ruin his life either way." Kat said getting to her feet and offering her hand to her friend.

….

" Suspended?" Caroline asked in shock as Klaus drove them out of the student parking lot after the final bell.

" Five days." Klaus said with great nonchalance.

" Zero tolerance for fighting and other acts of violence. There was video of what happened at the and that was the end of it." Caroline scoffed and rolled her eyes.

" It's such bull shit it didn't even happen on school property." she defended.

"Rules are rules." at that moment they came to a stop in front of Caroline's house.

"Do you want me to come in with you?" Klaus asked tentatively. Caroline shook her head and shot him a tight smile.

" It's fine. I just need to grab some tuff. I'll be in and out." She climbed out of the car and dashed around to the side of the house where her bedroom window was. She pushed up the glass and climbed into her room. Her dresser was still pushed in front of the door and showed no signs of having been pushed against from the other side. No one had tried to come into her room to check on her. Her mother didn't even know she was gone.

Caroline pulled the clothes she needed from the drawers and closet, and grabbed the other items she needed from her bathroom and room. She filled another bag and struggled to get the zipper closed. Out of the corner of her eye she saw her crumbled homecoming dress and the broken crown that sat on the floor by the wall. She felt her heart seize in her chest and she did her best to hold herself together as she shoved the bag out of the window and then climbed out herself. She made her way back out to the car and opened the passenger side door. She slide into her seat and put her bag at her feet.

"Are you alright?" Klaus asked, hyper aware of the uneasy look on Caroline's face. Caroline looked over at him, before reaching out to wrap her hand around his neck and pull him close to her. He hadn't kissed her since that night, but right now she wanted to convince him, and herself that she wasn't broken, and she wouldn't break.


	18. re tell

Eighteen Chapter 18: Re-tell

Caroline was surprised at how easily she had adjusted to sharing a bed with another person. It had always been a struggle when sleeping over at the Gilberts or Bonnie's house and she had never slept soundly feeling restricted or crowded in the shared sleeping space. She had always imagine that if she one day got married she and her husband would most definitely need a king size bed so they wouldn't ever have to touch during the night. Yet she had been staying in Klaus's trailer for several days, the two of them sharing a double size bed, and Caroline had never slept better. It worked out well really. Klaus already prefered the left side of the bed, while Caroline gravitated towards the right. They both liked to fall asleep to the sound of the tv and neither of them stole the covers.

The alarm clock began to blare waking Caroline up from a deep sleep. She groaned as she reached her arm out of the warmth of the covers and slapped her hand down on the snooze button. She rolled back over in bed and wrapped her arm around Klaus's middle, and resting her head on his chest.

"You've got to get up love." Klaus muttered, wrapping one of his arms around her.

" Five more minutes." Caroline said hunkering down deeper into the bed.

" Five minutes turns into ten, ten turns into twenty, and twenty turns into you skipping first period." Klaus stated as Caroline let out a huff.

" Well i like the sound of that. Who ever needed math anyway." Caroline offered closing her eyes again.

" we've had this argument every morning this week. Aren't you tired of it?" Klaus joked. Caroline flipped onto her stomach and propped herself up on her elbow.

" Yes, and i'm still waiting for the morning that i win." Caroline pouted, scrunching up her nose. Klaus shook his head at her and she let out another sigh.

" It's not fair." She complain, flipping over onto her back again and crossing her arms.

" You don't have to go to school." Caroline shot at him, trying not to glare. Klaus rolled his eyes.

" Well i'm not exactly skipping out am i? I'm actually allowed to be there." Klaus reasoned as Caroline grew exasperated.

" then i guess i'm just going to have to hit somebody so that we can spend all day in bed." Caroline quipped moving her face closer to Klaus's. He leaned forward to peck her lips before turning her over and pushing her towards the edge of the bed.

" Now get up!" Klaus demanded still smiling.

" Fine!" Caroline grumbled, taking the top quilt off the bed with her as she padded over the cold trailer floor towards the bathroom.

…

" I don't want to go." Caroline whined again.

" When did you become so responsible? There was a time you encouraged me to skip school." She was fully dressed and ready for the day, her hand on the door knob. Klaus was leaning up against the kitchen counter, wearing only a pair of sweatpants and eating a bowl of cereal. Klaus smirked at her.

" The sooner you go the sooner you can come back." He reasoned, taking another bite of his cereal. Caroline narrowed her eyes at him.

"That logic is flawed." She stated, pulling her bookbag higher up on her shoulder. Klaus smiled and shook his head slowly to himself. He put down his cereal and walked across the room towards her. He leaned in to kiss her while reaching behind her to push open the trailer door. He pressed the car keys into her hand.

" Now go." He said against her lips as the cold air rushed in and caused bumps to rise on both Caroline and Klaus's skin

" You suck, .' Caroline pouted as she turned on her heels and swung the car keys between her fingers. Klaus smirked at her as he watched her walk away.

….

Caroline was sitting in the driver's seat of the Klaus's car, parked in the Mystic high school parking lot. She had the visor flipped down and was using the small mirror to examine the marks that could still be seen on her forehead. It was wednesday, a full five days after the party, and although her headaches had lessened and the swelling had gone down Caroline had the nasty feeling that she might end up with a scar. Caroline jumped at the passenger side door was pulled open and cold air rushed into the warm interior of the car.

" I am digging this car." Kat said as she climbed in and immediately started pulling open the glove compartments and and pressing buttons on the radio.

" I didn't know you could drive stick!" Kat exclaimed having noticed the gear shift. Caroline rolled her eyes and tried to pull her book bag away from Kat, who had begun to pull at the zipper.

" What are you doing in here?" Caroline asked slightly amused. Kat gave her a pointed look.

" I'm here to warn you, that despite your amazing skills at dodging your other friends for the past two days, Bonnie and Elena are planning on cornering you today at lunch, pulling your teeth out for information and possibly having you committed." Kat warned, trying not to come off as amused. Caroline's heart dropped slightly.

" Why would they do that?" Caroline asked nervously. Kat rolled her eye's.

" Maybe it had something to do with the fact that you went awol over the weekend, showed up at school looking like you'd been jumped, ran away from home, moved in with your secret boyfriend, and are now driving said boyfriend's car around town like it's nothing." Caroline swallowed the lump in her throat and was about to sleep when Kat cut her off, grabbing her wrist.

" Look, they know about Tyler. They figured out that much and they asked me about it, but your secret boyfriend and new love nest? That's all you."

…

As Kat had forewarned Elena and Bonnie caught up with Caroline right after her third class and before her lunch period as they each looped an arm through hers. Caroline didn't resist them as they lead her past the cafeteria and towards the student lot. Kat was already in the driver's seat of the Gilberts SUV. They drove to a diner on the outside of town, and Caroline guessed that they wouldn't be making it back to school for the final class of the day. They all climbed into a booth by the window and before Caroline could even pick up her menu her friends started in on her.

" So" Bonnie started,

" Elena and i were discussing how we should start this and-"

" So what the fuck." Elena cut in, which made Kat snort with laughter.

" That's funny. That's exactly what i said." Kat smirked nudging her sister under the table with her foot. Elena and Bonnie both shot her a glare and Kat bit her lip to stop from laughing.

" So spill, because if we're right and you've been lying to us since september then you've got a whole of a lot to catch us up on.

" She hasn't been lying per se, but leaving out a few facts." Kat jumped in to defend her.

"Let's let Caroline talk." Bonnie offered. Caroline sighed.

" Okay, so you know on the first day of school…"

….

" I still don't get it." Bonnie said, leaning her head on her hand. Their food sat half eaten on the table as they sat engrossed listening to Caroline speak.

" Why would you not just tell us?" Caroline rolled her eyes at her friend.

" Oh please do you remember how the two of you reacted when i brought him to the grill with me? You looked at me like i'd walked through the door with fifty pounds of dead fish." Bonnie and Elena exchanged a look, knowing Caroline was right.

" It was complicated and i didn't know how to bring it up. I wasn't planning on telling Kat when i did. In fact if she hadn't figured it out i probably wouldn't have told her at all." Caroline said, poking at the food on her plate.

Kat shrugged her shoulder and smirked.

" I'm sorry that i'm so much smarter than both of both of you." Bonnie and Elena both shot Kat a dirty look.

" It's just that-" Elena began to speak again before her sister cut her off.

" Alright that's enough. None of us have any right to judge Care's dating choices. I mean Elena, none of us judged you when you dumped Stefan to start dating Damon in the tenth grade" Kat reasoned and tried to go but Elena cut her off.

" Yes you did! You all called me brotherly love for like a year and a half." Elena complained as Kat smirked at her sister.

" and Bonnie you can't say shit about Klaus because we call kept our mouths shut when you hooked up with Klaus's brother last summer before he left for boarding school, and he's two years younger than us."

" a year and half!" Bonnie defended as her face went bright red. Kat rolled her eyes.

" The point being, now everyone knows everything and we can move on and all be happy for everybody. Okay?" Kat offered, playing as mediator of the group.

…

Caroline drove Klaus's car down the rough road towards the trailer park. She pulled the car into its spot and killed the engine, pulling her book bag with her as she climbed out of the car and headed towards the front door.

Klaus was lounging on the couch when Caroline came, dropping her bag by the door with a huff.

" Made it through the day?" He asked, as she walked over and flounced down on the couch beside him.

" Well i did skip one class, but it wasn't intentional." she reasoned happily leaning forward to meet his lips with her own.

They lazily lounged around on the couch for a few hours, watching tv and talking, but not about much. The night was going by smoothly, until from her spot standing in the kitchen Caroline noticed a familiar car heading down the road towards the trailer.

" Shit!" Caroline said, dropping to her hands and knees and beginning to crawl to the safety of the bathroom and its locking door.

" What are you doing?" Klaus asked amused as he stood up from the couch.

" My mother is here." Caroline hissed as she shut and locked the bathroom door behind her.


	19. R and R

Eighteen Chapter 19: R and R

" Are you seriously going to hide in the bathroom?" Klaus asked amused as he stood by the front door, waiting for Liz to get out of the car and approach the trailer.

"Yes." Caroline hissed, pacing the small floor space of the bathroom and trying to calm her heart beat. She poked her head out the bathroom door and gave Klaus a pleading look.

" Please don't tell her i'm here." She locked the door again and took a seat on the sink and began to bite her nails. Why was her mother here? Okay, so she knew the answer to that question. Liz had obviously finally put two and two together that Caroline wasn't just hiding out in her room all day. But how did she know she was here? Liz had never met Klaus. She had seen him drop her off, and Caroline was decently sure that her father had filled Liz in on what he had seen his daughter doing with Klaus in the car on that rainy day back in october. But how did she know she was here? How did she know where Klaus lived? Police connections? Had she done some digging in files down at the city council office? Liz wasn't generally one to pull in favour at the mayor's office. Someone must have sold her out. Not Kat, she was too good with a secert. Maybe Bonnie, or Elena. They wouldn't have done it intentionally, but they couldn't lie through their teeth the way Katherine could. Her mother would have seen their lies all over their faces.

Caroline stopped breathing all together when she heard what must have been her mother's brisk knock on the trailer door. Caroline considered plugging her ears. She wasn't sure she wanted to hear what her mother was going to say, she wasn't sure she wanted to know how Klaus was going to handle it, if he was going to handle it.

" Good evening officer." Oh god was she still in uniform? Had pulling up in a police cruiser not been enough for Liz? Caroline couldn't hear what her mother said next, but didn't want to risk moving closer to the door to hear anything.

" Yes." Liz's answer was lost again

"She's been staying here."

" No, she's not." Caroline strained to hear her mom's words, but again heard nothing.

" I'll tell her." Klaus finished, and it sounded to Caroline like the door may have been closed. Did her mother leave already? But Klaus had admitted that she was staying there. Would her mother be back?

Klaus knocked briskly on the bathroom door.

" You're all clear" He said, and Caroline could hear the smirk in his voice. Caroline moved from her spot on the sink and pressed her ear against the door, waiting to hear the police cruiser start outside and pull away. After a few more seconds she unlocked the bathroom door and poked her nose back into the main room.

" That was a close one." Caroline huffed, moving towards the kitchen and reaching for the kettle to boil water for tea.

"What did she want?" Caroline asked as she strained on her tiptoes to reach the tea she liked on the top shelf of the

"Oh you know, she was just telling girl guide cookies." Klaus quipped sarcastically before his tone became slightly more serious.

" She's worried." Caroline bite the inside of her cheek, glad she had her back so Klaus so he couldn't see her face.

"I'll call her… eventually." Caroline justified, rubbing the side of her face with her hand.

" Is she going to come back here?" She asked as an afterthought. Klaus shook his head.

" I don't think so. I told her you'd been here for the last few days, and she just said to let you know that she wanted to talk."

Caroline felt the guilt creeping up her spine and she tried to shake it away. She wished being away from her father didn't mean being away from Liz as well. Caroline knew her mother had been lying to her for a long time, but she also knew that Liz did a lot of lying to herself.

…

Klaus woke up organically on Friday morning, the last day of his suspension, rather than to the normal sound of the alarm on Caroline's phone. Klaus rolled over in bed and was surprised to see that Caroline was still beside him. He glanced at the window and saw that the sun was bright and trying to leak through the edges of the curtains

" Caroline?" he got no response to his words. He nudged her leg with his foot.

" Caroline?" she stirred at his movement and groaned slightly.

"What time is it?" He asked, feeling around in the bed for his phone.

" I don't know." She muttered before rolling over in the bed and pulling the covers up around her shoulders, shivering from the cold air. He found his phone in the mess of sheets and pressed the home button, causing his screen to jump alive.

" It's nearly 10!" Klaus exclaimed, alarmed that they had slept so late.

" Oh no." Caroline muttered into her pillow, not bothering to open her eyes.

"Did you sleep through your alarm?" He asked, sitting up in bed, causing a rush of cold air to sweep into the warmth under the covers.

" I didn't set one." She mumbled, trying to pull the covers back around herself as she shivered against the cold.

"What?"

"It's a three day weekend?" Caroline offered, flipping over to look over at Klaus. He gave her a pointed look.

"Snow day?" She tried again. Another look.

"Christmas break started early?"

" Alright look, concussions can take weeks or months to heal. Especially those that are self diagnosed so i really think an extra day of rnr is in order." Caroline defended as Klaus collapsed back in bed deciding he was far too drowsy to keep up with this conversation.

"Plus i mean who actually needs an education." Caroline joked, closing her eyes and attempting to fall back asleep.

…..

The following monday was Klaus's first day back at school after his five day suspension. Caroline wasn't the only one complaining as they got up that morning after their long weekend. She poked fun at him for being so hesitant to get out of bed when he'd so easily chastised her for wanting to sleep in.

The two of them both trying to get ready for the day in the tiny bathroom was no easy feat, and Caroline had come dangerously close to accidentally spitting toothpaste into Klaus's arm as they both brushed their teeth, and had decided that wearing her hair in a messy bun was an easier compromise then having an argument about the lack of hot water Klaus had left for her. Maybe she should become a night time shower person. Assuming her hair would dry alright overnight. Caroline hoped that no one looked too closely her to notice that her hair wasn't clean.

Living out at Klaus's place meant that they had to leave earlier for school then when Caroline had lived at home. The mobile park was on the outskirts of town and nearly a twenty five minute drive to the high school. When Caroline had lived at home she could roll out of bed in the morning, throw on a clean shirt and be pulling into the school parking lot within five minutes.

Caroline was glad to have Klaus back at school with her, but there were a few drawbacks. A; this would be the first time that her friends would around Klaus since Caroline had come out with their relationship, and B: Klaus's suspension being done, meant that Tyler's would also be finished, meaning that this was the first time in a week that Caroline was sure to see him.

A few days ago Caroline had gotten a call from his number and immediately blocked him from her contacts. She didn't care what he had to say. She wanted to pretend he didn't exist, at any cost necessary. But Mystic falls High was not a large school. Tyler was in her fourth period class. His locker was only fifty feet down from her own.

She wanted to think that she didn't care. That she wouldn't let it bother her, but her blood boiled whenever she thought about him, and the anger she felt never seemed to go away.

…

Fourth period came faster then Caroline may have liked that day. She was dreading having to spend 90 straight minutes in the same room with Tyler, even though they wouldn't have to talk and didn't even sit near each other.

Caroline came in the classroom when the bell rung and saw that tyler was already seated at his desk. She could feel his eyes on her as she walked to her desk and sat down with her back to him. The rest of the students filed into the classroom followed by their teacher.

After handing out an assignment outline, the teacher instructed the students to rise from their desks and follow him down towards the computer lab at the end of the hall. Caroline followed the rest of her class towards the library where the computer lab was located, but as she was about to turn the corner with the other students she felt someone wrap their hand around her arm and pull her off towards the empty hallway to their left. Caroline didn't even register what was happening until she found herself alone in the hallway with Tyler Lockwood.


	20. Regional

Eighteen Chapter 20: Regional Hospital

A series of things happened before Caroline could register much. One moment Caroline had been turning down the hallway away from Tyler, not caring that it meant she had to skip out on the rest of class, and the next second she was clutching her right hand, gritting her teeth in pain. Caroline had tried to walk away from the conversation before Tyler could get a word out, but when she had turned to leave Tyler had said her name and reached out to grab her arm. Caroline had reacted in a split second. Her fist had made contact with the side of Tyler's face. The second she landed the punch she felt pain shoot through her hand in a way that she had only ever experienced once before in her life. Tyler recoiled at the impact as Caroline grasped her hurt hand in her other fist.

" Fuck" she hissed quietly to herself, speaking between her teeth and cradling her hand. She had never learned to throw a punch, which had apparently been a big mistake. Never in her life had she imagined having to hit another person, but this was the second time in just over a week that she had been compelled to use her own body as a weapon.

Tyler was straightening up again, but before he could do anything else Caroline spat out

"Stay away from me." She turned once again and walked as quickly as she could down the hallway and towards the double door at the end that lead outdoors. She didn't care that she was skipping out on the rest of the class, or that her teacher would surely phone home to her mother to complain about her disappearing act. She would skip every single history class for the rest of the year if she had too. Caroline couldn't bare to look at Tyler, she had felt sick when he said her name and could still feel her skin crawl in the place he had touched her. The cold air hit her like a wall when she burst through the school doors to the outside and the parking lot. Her head was spinning and she had to stop for a moment, still clutching her hand. She leaned over the railing, still dizzy, feeling as if she may get sick. Her lunch curdled in her stomach and she swallowed the bile in her throat trying to pull herself together.

" You're fine." she whispered to herself, the same way she had on homecoming night. Fine, fine. Fine, fine. She repeated over and over again, breathing in and out and letting the cold air burn her lungs as she huffed. Her hand was still throbbing and she had a sinking feeling that it wasn't going to go away with an ice pack and a bandaid.

She had broken her ankle in the third grade after an unfortunate incident involving Katherine, Elena, their little brother Jeremy and a trampoline without safety net, so she had some idea of what a broken bone felt like. She was almost certain that she had broken something. She bit her lip in an effort to keep her tears at bay and she held her hand tight to her chest. Caroline knew she needed to head over to the hospital sooner rather than later but dreaded the thought of sitting in the waiting room, or having nurses press her for answers as to what had happened. Class didn't let out for another forty five minutes at least and Klaus had the keys to his car, tho Caroline doubted she could drive manual very well with a crushed right hand. Klaus was taking a test that period so she couldn't knock on his classroom door for a ride, and the nearest hospital was nearly 25 minutes away by car, so walking was out of the question. Caroline made a calculated decision and took a breath before heading back into the school and climbing the nearby staircase to the second floor. She stopped outside the classroom door that housed a english classroom and used her one hand that wasn't throbbing to knock on the door. Within moments Ms. Windom, the classes teacher was pulling open to the door and smiling warmly at Caroline. Ms. Windom was one of the schools more lax teachers and fortunately for Caroline Katherine peer mentored her English class that period. Caroline spoke quickly and quietly to Ms. Windom so the 9th graders in the classroom couldn't hear what she was saying. looked down at the swelling hand that Caroline had clutched to her chest. She nodded and turned back to face the class, gesturing to the back of the room for Katherine to come over.

Kat joined Caroline in the hallway as Ms. Windom closed to the door behind them and headed back to continue to teacher her class. Kat looked between her friends face and Caroline surely broken hand in confusion. Before Kat could speak Caroline spoke.

" So i need a ride to the hospital." Caroline began smiling sheepishly in an attempt to seem composed. Kats eyes widened.

" i'll tell you on the way there." Caroline added, as she used her good hand to loop her arm through Kats and led her down the hallway back towards the stairs and the exit to the parking lot.

…..

Kat slammed her hand on the top of the steering wheel in a way that made Caroline's own hand hurt just witnessing it.

" Easy there" Caroline said as Kat continued to speed down the road towards the regional hospital.

" I have never been so proud of you in my whole damn life." Kat stated, pressing down on the gas pedal and sending them flying forward.

"It's about time that Bastard got what was coming to him, and just wait until i get my hands on him i'll-"

" I think one broken bone between the two of us is more than enough." Caroline interjected, making Kat shrug.

" You're going to let me sign your cast right?" Kat asked, taking her eyes off the road to grin over at her friend. Caroline rolled her eyes.

"Are you eleven?" Caroline asked as Kat smirked at her once more.

….

As luck would have it the emergency rooms waiting room was nearly empty by the time that Caroline and Kat arrived. It was barely fifteen minutes before Caroline's name was called and she was lead back to a bed in the ER to await for a doctor to round on her. Kat was sat on the side of her bed, tapping furiously on her phone, texting Elena who was confused and rightly pissed at being stranded at school with no car to get home with no explanation. Caroline had sent a quick message to Klaus but she doubted he had received it yet. He would have gone straight from his last period test to the mandatory principal meeting he had scheduled for after school to discuss his return to classes after his week long suspension.

" Katherine? Caroline?" both girls looked up at the sound of their names to see none other than Dr. Grayson Gilbert, Kat's father, was striding towards them looking confused and concerned. Caroline cursed silently, she had completely forgotten that Dr. Gilbert was on rotation at the hospital in addition to his private practice. Kat bit her lip for a second before adopting a plastered on pleasant smile.

"Hi Daddy." she simpered sweetly as Grayson came to a stop by the bed where Caroline and Kat sat.

" What happened?" Grayson asked with concern, taking in Caroline's swollen hand and reaching to gingerly examine it.

" Oh you know," Kat began, brushing her hair out of her face with confidence.

" Cares such a klutz. She tripped and her hand just, booped, right through a wall." Kat said matter of factly. Grayson looked at his daughter doubtfully, but let the shaky story slide. He placed Caroline hand back on the bed gently and stepped back.

" I'd say it's a break but we'll need x rays to confirm. I'll see what i can do about getting you bumped up the line." Caroline smiled at Kat's father and thanked him. Grayson patted her shoulder and leaned over to kiss his daughter's forehead, before heading back into the thick of the ER.

After waiting around a bit more, someone approached Caroline's bed and led her down the corridors of the hospital towards the room where the x-ray machines were housed. After a series of shots were taken of her hand, Caroline was wheeled back towards the ER and to her bed to wait for her x-rays to be read and a final course of treatment to be handed out. But as she was lead back to her bed she saw that it wasn't Katerine waiting there for her, not Klaus or even Dr Gilbert, but her very own Mother, Liz Forbes.


End file.
